Pre-Law Students

Program Director Martin Edwards (R) and former Assistant Peggy Baldt (L)who now practices law with former UNF student Jessica Stebbins (C, now a Yale Law School Graduate).

During the 2002-3 academic year enrollment in UNF’s Pre-Law Program grew to over 300 students. Each student who visits the Program office is personally interviewed by the Program Director and a file is maintained for each student. Pre-Law students can enroll in the Program beginning in their freshman year, and several post-graduate students are also listed among program enrollees.

Because the law covers all facets of human activity, the contemporary lawyer must be a person with a wide range of interests, and a broad base of knowledge. There is no required list of subjects, which must be taken for admission to law school; however, many of the Program students have a reasonable degree of exposure to such subjects as English composition, history, literature, philosophy, political science, and economics, which provide a good background for a full appreciation of the law. Many of the Program students have selected one of these areas as a major field of concentrated study, but the Program encompasses students from all possible undergraduate majors.

Kate Shonina and Nicole Timmer greet freshmen students with Pre-Law Program collage.

Numerous pre-law students are enrolled at UNF. Each year UNF sends its graduates from diverse economic, academic, racial and cultural backgrounds to law schools and law-related fields in Florida and throughout the nation. Historically under-represented in law schools, women and minority group students have discovered that today there are new opportunities for law school admission.

Cindy Laskey (L), a former program assistant and UF Law School Grad , with Catherine Moore, the current program assistant, and Peggy Baldt, a former program assistant, now practicing law in Jacksonville.

Casey Ratchford (L) is a program graduate who was on Law Review at Washington & Lee School of Law, and now is an assistant public defender. Eric Roberson attended the Levin College of Law, where he clerked for a semester at the Florida Supreme Court. Roberson is now an assistant state attorney. They met at UNF, and were on mock trial teams together, now they oppose one another on cases in county court in Northeast Florida.

Several of the Pre Law Program students were honored at UNF 2007's convocation. Patrick Bennett maintains a high academic average and has been nominated for major scholarship awards. Jenna Strom is also an awards nominee and served as the editor of the camnpus newspaper the Spinnaker in 2006-2007.

Recent UNF Graduates in Accredited Law Schools and Graduate Schools

Angel Warnick (L) and Jenny Santana served as program greeters prior to their graduation from UNF in 2005.

UNF graduates are attending accredited law schools around the country. The list of law schools includes: Duke, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Ohio State, Washington & Lee, Wake Forest, the University of Florida, and Florida State, among others. In addition, other UNF students are attending the region's newest law school, the Florida Coastal School of Law.