Friday, January 9, 2009

Biografía de Bruce Rogow


Bruce Rogow has been a professor of law at Nova Southeastern University Law Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, since 1974. In 1978-79, he was co-dean of the Law Center, and in 1984, Acting Dean. Before joining Nova, he was on the faculty at the University of Miami. Mr. Rogow has taught Civil Procedure, Federal Jurisdiction, Constitutional Law, Appellate Practice, Criminal Law and Legal Ethics.
In addition to teaching, Mr. Rogow has litigated extensively over the past 44 years. He has argued hundreds of civil and criminal cases in federal and state appellate courts, including eleven cases in the Supreme Court of the United States.
He was Supreme Court counsel in Beach v. Ocwen Federal Bank, Seminole Tribe v. State of Florida, Florida Bar v. Went For it Inc., Campbell v. Acuff-Rose, Argersinger v. Hamlin, Gerstein v. Pugh, Ingraham v. Wright, Mathews v. Diaz, Davis v. Scherer, co-counsel in Fuentes v. Shevin, and was appointed by the Supreme Court to
represent the petitioner in Francis v. Henderson. In two cases, Waldron v. United States, and Arthur v. Hillsborough County, the Supreme Court granted certiorari and reversed the decisions below without argument.
In the 2000 Presidential election litigation, he was counsel in the Supreme Court for the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board in Bush v. Palm Beach Co.Canvassing Bd. He was co-counsel in United Haulers v. Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste
Management Authority, decided favorably in April 2007. In December 2007 he was retained by the Kentucky Retirement System to prepare its lawyer for a January 2008 Supreme Court argument in Kentucky Retirement System v. EEOC. The case was decided in favor of the Kentucky Retirement System.
Mr. Rogow has been listed in every edition of The Best Lawyers In America for the past twenty years. In the newest edition he has been named in four categories: Appellate Law, Commercial Litigation, White Collar Criminal Defense and First Amendment Law. He is also listed in Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. He is one of three lawyers in Florida to have been Board Certified in both civil and criminal appellate law and was elected to the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. Mr. Rogow is also a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Mr. Rogow has also won numerous awards over the years for his public service,
litigation, and teaching, including the Reginald Heber Smith Award from the National Legal Aid and Defender Association and the Playboy Foundation First Amendment Award. In 2000, he was awarded the James C. Adkins Award, given to Florida’s outstanding appellate jurists or practitioners. He was the first practicing lawyer to receive the award. In 2006 he was a finalist for Most Effective Appellate Lawyer in South Florida and in December 2007 he was named the Most Effective Appellate Lawyer in South Florida. In 2008 he was chosen as one of Florida Trend’s
2008 Florida Legal Elite.
Mr. Rogow has represented governmental entities, public officials, trial and appellate judges, law firms, lawyers (including F. Lee Bailey), and corporations in major trial and appellate work. His clients in 2007– 2008 included Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Donald Trump, Don King, David Koch (Koch Industries), Kentucky Derby winning jockey Jose Santos (whose defamation case against the Miami Herald he settled in March 2008 for a confidential sum), Richard Scrushy, the former CEO of HealthSouth Corp., a State Senator (whose convictions he reversed in December (2007), a mayor and three municipalities and all the pari-mutuels in Dade and Broward counties. In
March 2007, representing Morgan Stanley, he reversed the $1.5 billion judgment entered against it in West Palm Beach with directions to enter a judgment in favor of Morgan Stanley. In 1995 he secured the reversal of a $52 million judgment against Florida*s largest sugar companies, and the reversal of a $1.7 million contempt judgment against an attorney. In 1993 and 1994 he won Florida Supreme Court victories for a mayor denied municipal pension benefits, and for a special taxing
district denied self-governing authority. In 1997 he reversed a million dollar federal judgment against Palm Beach County. In 1998 he obtained reversal of an order quashing charging liens, allowing lawyers to pursue their claims to 25% of Florida’s $11 billion tobacco settlement. In 1996 his Florida Supreme Court victory for a brain damaged child led to a $9 million settlement and in 1998 he was appellate counsel in a civil rights case against the State which was settled for $17.75 million. In July 1999, he obtained a federal appellate affirmance establishing Indian Tribes’
immunity from suits by the State under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. In February and March 2006 he reversed a potential billion dollar class action against Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and obtained a jury defense verdict in a $25 million suit against Jet Aviation International, Inc. and Hirschmann Industrial Holdings, Ltd., major Swiss companies. In May 2006 he reversed a multi-million dollar award against a physician and won an appellate decision for the Mayor of Miami -Dade County
allowing a strong Mayor change of government to be presented to voters. In December 2006, he reversed an obscenity conviction and obtained the release of a Russian entrepreneur who had been incarcerated on the charge.
Since May 2006 Mr. Rogow has argued fifteen appeals in the various Florida District Courts of Appeal and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He argued four cases in the Florida Supreme Court in 2007-2008 and in March 2008 reversed a trial court and prevailed in the Fourth District Court of Appeal for the City of Hollywood, Florida in a major eminent domain case, and upheld a $5 million fraud judgment against a corporation and its principal. He lectured in Tallahassee on Appellate Practice Before the Supreme Court of Florida in June 2006, June 2007
and June 2008; was a featured speaker for the Florida County Judges Conference in July 2006 and the Florida District Court of Appeal Judicial Conference in June 2007. In October 2006 he was a panelist for the State Bar of Georgia’s “11 Circuit Appellate Practice th Institute” in Atlanta. The subject was “Characteristics of Effective Oral Argument.” In Nov. - Dec. 2000 he represented Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore and the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board in numerous cases in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the Supreme Court of the United States and the Supreme Court of Florida. In July 2000,
he obtained a federal permanent injunction against enforcement of the Miami-Dade County “Cuba Affidavit,” which required applicants for cultural grants to swear they had no ties to any Cuban nationals. He successfully defended Palm Beach County on appeal in a Title VII employment discrimination case in April 2000; and in 1999, he won a defense decision for the City of Boca Raton in United States district court in the first trial under the Florida Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1998; a decision affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals in 2005
Earlier, he successfully defended the Chief of the Seminole Tribe of Florida against federal and state Endangered Species Act criminal charges for killing a Florida panther on the Reservation, and 2 Live Crew in their federal and state obscenity trials and appeals. He obtained the acquittal of a South Florida mayor charged with theft in office. He successfully represented the Cuban Museum against the City of Miami*s attempt to evict the Museum for its artists’ political views, obtaining a
federal injunction against the City. He also obtained the first federal court appellate decision declaring that a musical work was not obscene. His Supreme Court success in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music established copyright protections for commercial parodies.
Among Mr. Rogow’s successful criminal appeals are Siplin v. State (Fla. 5th DCA 2007) (reversing convictions with order to acquit); Pizzo v. State (Fla. 2d DCA 2005 and Fla. Sup. Ct.2006) (reversing fraud convictions); Billie v. State (Fla. 3d DCA 2003) (reversing second degree murder conviction and life sentence); Hebel v. State (Fla. 2d DCA 2000) (reversing conviction and 12-year sentence for sexual battery) (in February 2001, he tried the case in Arcadia, Florida, and obtained an acquittal); United States v. Arnold, 117 F.3d 1308 (11th Cir. 1997) (reversed money
laundering and Travel Act and conspiracy, for Brady violation); United States v. Kramer, 73 F.3d 1067 (11th Cir. 1996) (reversed money laundering conviction and 20 year sentence, reversed $9 million forfeiture); DeFreitas v. State, 701 So. 2d 593 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997) (reversed agg. assault w/ firearm for prosecutorial misconduct; fundamental error).
Over the years Mr. Rogow has handled numerous criminal trials and appeals as well as federal habeas corpus proceedings and appeals, and has been repeatedly appointed by the Florida Supreme Court to represent indigent prisoners. In November 2007, in Spera v. State, he reversed an 11-0 4th DCA en banc decision with a 7-0 Florida Supreme Court victory and in July 2008 he established the right in Florida to
seek post-conviction relief for defendants whose lawyers advise them to reject a favorable plea offer (Morgan v. State).
Mr. Rogow has served as a consultant to lawyers and legal aid organizations, and as an expert witness on attorneys’ fees; has lectured to judges and lawyers; writes, and has been President of the Legal Aid Society of Broward County, Florida, and Special Counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Florida, Special Counsel to The Florida Bar and a Special Assistant Attorney General.
Mr. Rogow’s professional career began in 1965-66 when he was staff counsel for the Lawyers* Constitutional Defense Committee, representing civil rights workers in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.
Fotografía: el abogado Bruce Rogow, en esta foto del 13 de noviembre de 2000 en Miami (Ed Cox/AP).