STETSON LEGACY
PROFESSOR DOROTHEA BEANE RETIRES B Y A S H L E Y M C K N I G H T - TAY L O R
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ongtime professor of law and co-director of the Institute for Caribbean Law and Policy, Dorothea A. Beane, announced her retirement from Stetson Law, effective December 2020. She still serves the College as a Professor of Law Emeritus.
Professor Beane is a Stetson Law legend with 30 years teaching Federal Pre-Trial Practice, Civil Procedure, International Human Rights Law, and The Law of International Tribunals. She was founder and director of the Summer Abroad Program in The Hague, Netherlands, and has worked extensively in The Hague on matters involving international criminal law and human rights. She was the first minority tenured faculty at Stetson Law and received the College of Law Teaching Excellence Award in 2005. Beane joined Stetson after her first career as a trial attorney at the Department of Justice. While her résumé and accolades make clear her legal and teaching prowess, it is the stories her colleagues and former students tell that reveal the true impact Beane had at Stetson Law. And a theme begins to emerge: demanding, but compassionate. “The perfect description of Professor Beane is ‘tough love,’” said Ted Karatinos, J.D. ’93 and adjunct professor. “She sets a high bar but bends over backward to help them meet it.” Judge Michael Allen was a member of the faculty from 2001 to 2017 and said that while Beane projected a tough exterior, she had a softer side that was evident in how she would go out of her way to help students, be it with law school or in their personal lives. During his tenure as associate dean, Beane was an honor code investigator who would be brutally honest in her fact-finding, but exceedingly practical in her recommended punishments, primarily because she cared so much for students. She did not want to let one mistake define them or the rest of their careers, Allen explained. Clinton Paris, J.D./MBA ’00, said he’d never even had Beane as a professor, but she made a point to stop him in the courtyard to chat one day. “She was just profound at this,” Paris said. “She knew every Black student on campus and went out of her way to make a connection with you.”
Professor Beane was founder and director of the Summer Abroad Program in The Hague, Netherlands, Stetson’s most popular study abroad program.
Her efforts went beyond simple small talk. Beane encouraged Paris to apply for an internship with Judge Mary Scriven and to try out for Moot Court Board and Law Review. She pushed him to work harder and aim higher while still reassuring him that success was possible if he put his mind to it and embraced the challenge. Quite simply, Paris said, Beane made sure he got the most out of law school. “You didn’t want to let her down,” Paris said. Karatinos took Civil Procedure I with Beane the first year she started teaching at Stetson Law. She tapped him as a teaching assistant and to help draft a Law Review article. Eleven years later, Beane asked him to guest lecture for one of her classes, and they have co-taught Federal Civil Pretrial Practice since 2002. Karatinos said when it came to students, Beane was generous with her time, providing office hours, tutoring, and plenty of feedback – a hallmark of her teaching style. She also stressed to students that her classroom was a safe space to make a mistake; she’d rather they do it there and learn from it instead of out in the real world. In doing so, she not only ingrained the lesson but built students’ confidence. “To me, she’s a Stetson icon.”
Professor Dorothea A. Beane Scholarship A distinguished committee of Stetson BLSA alumni created The Professor Dorothea A. Beane Scholarship to honor the work and career of Professor Beane. It is intended to attract and retain Black students with enormous potential each academic year at Stetson Law. Scholarship consideration may be given to first-generation African American college students and students with financial need. Eligible first-year students qualify, as do eligible 2L or 3L African American students either in the full-time or part-time J.D. program. “This scholarship is really the first initiative to rally and gather the Black student alumni,” said Danielle Weaver-Rogers, J.D. ’13, and one of the committee members. The goal is to fund 100 percent tuition. Clinton Paris, J.D./MBA ’00, agreed: “This scholarship gives alumni a chance to make a statement.” 19
