"I am very honored to be awarded the Laurie Silvers and Mitchell Rubenstein Endowed Distinguished Professorship," said Froomkin, who is the second recipient of the award. Last year, the professorship was awarded to the late Professor Bruce Winick, who served as the founder and Director of Miami Law's Therapeutic Jurisprudence Center.
Professor Froomkin, an Internet and administrative law expert who writes primarily about Internet governance, electronic democracy and privacy, founded Jotwell: The Journal of Things We Like (Lots) - an online journal (www.jotwell.com) where legal academics can identify, celebrate and discuss the best new legal scholarship. He is also a founder-editor of ICANNWatch, and serves on the Editorial Board of Information, Communication & Society and of I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society. He is on the Advisory Boards of several organizations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and is a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London.
Professor Froomkin
Before becoming a faculty member at Miami Law, Froomkin practiced international arbitration law in the London office of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. He clerked for Judge Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, and Chief Judge John F. Grady of the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois.
"The law school is fortunate, indeed, both to have him on its faculty and to have Laurie Silvers and Mitch Rubenstein make it possible for it to honor and support the work of our most distinguished faculty," said Dean Patricia D. White, who also acknowledged Froomkin as a professor who is richly deserving of this recognition. "We appreciate the intelligence and perspective that you bring to all that we do," she said when addressing the audience who included President Donna Shalala and the husband and wife team of Silvers and Rubenstein, whose generosity established the professorship at the School of Law.
Silvers graduated from Miami Law in the ’70s, and is also a UM trustee.
Together, the former practicing attorneys have become media entrepreneurs. In 1981, they established Rubenstein & Silvers, a law firm specializing in entertainment, cable television, and broadcasting law. They are co-founders of the Boca Raton-based Hollywood Media Corp., a leading Internet provider of entertainment news, information, and ticketing services. The couple also founded and ran cable television's Sci-Fi Channel from its 1989 inception until its 1992 sale to USA Network.
Friends at the event took the time to reflect on Professor Froomkin's integral role in defining and structuring the laws that govern the Internet.
"Michael looks at the Internet in a holistic way not just what it can give us," said Cindy Cohn, a Legal Director and General Counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Michael walks his talk."
