UF College of Law Named for Prominent Lawyer Fredric G.
Levin
University of Florida Levin College of Law-- News Release and Tips,
July 21, 1999
Jan. 6, 1999 Writer: Denise Stobbie
Contacts: Fredric Levin (850) 435-7123 / Richard Matasar (352)
392-9586
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- A gift from prominent trial lawyer Fredric G.
Levin to the University of Florida College of Law will result in a $20
million endowment, immediately transforming the college into one of the
best-funded public law schools in the nation. The gift, the second-largest
ever to a public U.S. law school, will be formally announced by UF
officials Monday (1/11/99) at a luncheon in Levin's hometown of
Pensacola.
In recognition of Levin's distinguished career and history of support
and service to the university and the state of Florida, President John V.
Lombardi also will announce that the college -- which has graduated
generations of Florida's leaders in law, business, education and
government in its 90-year history -- will be named the Fredric G. Levin
College of Law.
"This latest extraordinary gift from Mr. Levin will have an immediate
and permanent impact on the quality of legal education and the quality of
legal services in Florida," President Lombardi said. "His gift ensures
that this state will have a law school that meets and exceeds the very
highest standards of academic excellence and service to the state, nation
and international community. We are indeed grateful to Mr. Levin and to
the Levin family for their legacy of giving to the University of
Florida."
The college will be housed in the two existing buildings, which will
continue to bear the names Spessard L. Holland Hall and Bruton-Geer Hall.
In addition, fund raising is in progress to build an adjacent
state-of-the-art academic building.
Levin's gift of $10 million -- the largest one-time cash gift from an
individual to UF -- will be eligible for state matching funds of $10
million to create the $20 million Fredric G. and Marilyn Kapner Levin
Endowment Fund. The endowment will generate more than $1 million a year to
support the college's mission of quality education, cutting-edge research,
and public service at the state, national and international level, said UF
law Dean Richard A. Matasar. He added that the additional resources will
enhance academic centers and institutes in areas of curricular strength,
including dispute resolution, tax law, intellectual property law,
environmental law, international law, race relations, professionalism, and
legal technology.
The gift will increase the college's private endowment to
approximately $50 million, which places it "near the top of the nation's
public law school endowments," Matasar said. "This gift propels us toward
our goal of becoming one of the top five public law schools in
America."
"It's a new ball game for Florida," Matasar said. "It's as if we went
to sleep as one law school and woke up a different one. This gift will
allow us to do things that other law schools only dream about. It is an
investment in quality people and programs, which ties in beautifully with
our emphasis on professionalism and the advancement of legal scholarship.
It also will serve as a fulcrum for efforts to raise funds for our new
academic building, which will allow our students to study and work
alongside practicing lawyers, judges and teachers."
Matasar also holds the Levin, Mabie & Levin Professorship of Law,
established at the college in 1995 by Levin, along with his brother,
David, and their late law partner, Lefferts Mabie II, through a gift of
land valued in excess of $1 million. All three are UF law alumni. Levin
also endowed a professorship at the University of West Florida in 1984 in
an amount exceeding $1 million.
"Mr. Levin and his firm and family are incredibly generous people, and
the naming of our law school after him is a tribute to their values,"
Matasar said. "He is a terrific individual and a great lawyer. His love is
the law, and he wants to ensure that this law school imparts that love to
others."
Levin said he never forgot that a degree from Florida's preeminent
College of Law launched his career as one of America's most prominent
trial lawyers. "This gift is a continuation of my history of giving to
public education and is in some way a repayment for the education I
received at the University of Florida. Law school changed my whole life;
it was there that I gained a sense of purpose and found that I could be
good at something. I would hope this gift will further advance the quality
and ranking of the University of Florida nationally, and I am pleased to
be in a position to assist the university and public education in
general."
Levin, 61, who earned bachelor's and law degrees from UF, is chairman
of Pensacola's largest law firm, Levin, Middlebrooks, Thomas, Mitchell,
Green, Echsner, Proctor & Papantonio, P.A. He has held national records
for jury verdicts involving wrongful death and personal injury and
recently was a key member of the team of attorneys that produced the
state's $13.2 billion settlement with major tobacco companies over health
care costs. Certified as a Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of
Trial Advocacy, Levin is a member of the prestigious Inner Circle of
Advocates and received the 1994 Perry Nichols Award from the Academy of
Florida Trial Lawyers. He has been listed in every edition of "Best
Lawyers in America." Attorney and manager for some of the greatest boxers
in the world, including Roy Jones Jr. and Ike Quartey, Levin also was
voted "Manager of the Year" by the Boxing Writers of America in 1993.
Levin is one of five brothers who all received degrees from UF. He and
his wife have four children, all of whom attended UF; three earned
advanced degrees -- two in law and one in business.