Stetson Lawyer
ALUMNI SUCCESS His dedication to his legal studies while at Stetson Law became the stuff of legend. The St. Petersburg Times even wrote about his unique method of studying law by taping class lectures on a small reel-to-reel, then listening to the tape for up to seven hours a day before recording his own notes on additional tapes. His legal colleagues say that experience left him with an uncanny ability to hear what’s said in negotiations – as well as what’s not said. A few days before graduating from Stetson Law, he slipped on wet pavement and broke his ankle – and attended the ceremony with help from a wheelchair. With his family by his side, he became the first Seminole to earn a law degree. After passing the bar, he worked as deputy counsel for the then3,000-member Seminole Tribe of Florida in 1981. A year later, he became general counsel for the tribe, now 4,200 strong, a role he has held ever since.
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: JIM SHORE
W
ith dedication to serving his community and an unflappable work ethic, Jim Shore’s path to becoming general counsel for the Seminole Tribe of Florida is as uncommon as it is inspirational. In 2022, Stetson University College of Law launched a new scholarship named in Shore’s honor. The Jim Shore Scholarship for the Seminole Tribe of Florida Endowment will encourage and support members of the Seminole Tribe of Florida to pursue a legal education at Stetson Law. It will be available to 1L, 2L, or 3L students in the full-time or part-time J.D. program who are members of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Recipients must be in good academic standing and financial need will be a key consideration. “The continued success of the Seminole Tribe of Florida depends on the education of future generations of its members,” Shore said. “We hope Stetson University College of Law becomes an important partner in attracting, educating, and preparing Seminole students to become attorneys. Thank you for your efforts on our behalf.” Jim Shore was born in 1945 in an area just northwest of Lake Okeechobee, where his family raised cattle and lived in chickees with thatched roofs and no indoor plumbing. Despite the challenge of being born blind in one eye, he graduated from Okeechobee High School in 1963 and worked in construction, as a mechanic, and even as a cowboy. In 1970, an auto accident sent shards of glass into his eyes, resulting in complete blindness. Without the ability to see, he needed to start over with a new career direction; Shore would joke that he couldn’t make a living riding a horse. He turned to education, first earning his B.A. in history from Stetson University’s DeLand campus in 1976. After hearing his classmates talk about going on to study law at the University’s Gulfport law school campus, he applied and was accepted. 20
He helped form the Seminole Police Department and effectively negotiated a series of water use challenges between the Seminole Tribe of Florida, the state, and the federal government. His work has greatly improved the health and welfare of the Seminole people by helping to diversify tribe enterprises, including negotiations between the tribe and the state to secure the 2007 gaming agreement that allowed for Las Vegas-style gaming at the tribe’s six Florida casinos. He also shepherded the tribe’s monumental acquisition of the Hard Rock hotel, restaurant, and casino chain.
The continued success of the Seminole Tribe of Florida depends on the education of future generations of its members. We hope Stetson University College of Law becomes an important partner in attracting, educating and preparing Seminole students to become attorneys. -Jim Shore, B.A. ’76, J.D. ’80 In 2020, he won the American Bar Association’s Energy, Environment and Resources Government Attorney of the Year award for his legal work and achievements in the areas of the environment, energy, and natural resources. He continues to focus on Everglades restoration and Lake Okeechobee management within the Brighton Reservation, which now encompasses the area where he grew up, and the Big Cypress Seminole Reservation. In a video introducing Shore, attorney Michelle Diffenderfer, president of Florida-based firm Lewis, Longman & Walker, who has worked with Shore for years, lauded him for his “incredible listening skills and a penchant for knowing just what to do at the right time.” He also received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Florida State University in 2005 and was inducted into Stetson Law’s Hall of Fame in 2010.
