UF students do not have to go off campus anymore to see what a real courtroom looks like.
The Martin H. Levin Advocacy Center, a state-of-the-art facility developed in conjunction with the Fredric G. Levin College of Law, opened Thursday.
The center contains a fully functional trial courtroom that will allow students to receive legal training in a professional setting.
The courtroom, located on the first floor of the center, contains a 98-seat gallery, a bench for seven judges, a judge’s chambers, a jury box and attorneys’ tables. Multiple flat-screen TVs hang from the ceiling of the courtroom, and sections are designated for cameras to film court proceedings.
Construction of the second floor of the center will begin Tuesday or Wednesday. It will include legal research writing offices and classrooms featuring small court setups with including a bench, jury box and six-person witness box.
The two-floor, 20,000-square-foot center is funded in large part by the latest donation from Fred Levin, the law school’s namesake and a 1961 graduate of the law school. Levin’s $2 million donation led a group of six donors for the project.
“I think the facility will make the University of Florida one of the great schools for trial practice as it is in so many other areas,” he said.
Robert Jerry, dean of the law school, said the facility has already attracted professionals, including the First District Court of Appeals, which recently held two days of oral arguments at the center.
“[The center] gives our students the opportunity to walk from one building to the next and between classes watch a live proceeding going on,” Jerry said.
Classes that previously held mock trials in classrooms or the older Bailey Courtroom will now use the advocacy center courtroom.
Jennifer White, president of the UF Trial Team, said that law students are extremely pleased with the new facility.
“This is a beautiful facility,” White said. “It’s actually more like what a lot of courtrooms look like or should be.”
The courtroom will also be used as a practice facility for the moot court team and the Trial Team.
UF President Bernie Machen spoke at the celebration for the opening of the center on Thursday and expressed his optimism concerning the long-term effect the center will have on the law school.
“It is an exciting time to think that future generations of advocates will study and be trained right here,” he said.
