College of Law welcomes seven faculty and staff for 2024-2025 school year

As the College of Law settles into its new space at 121 W. Forsyth St., it also welcomes several highly-trained and well-respected faculty, staff and adjunct professors. Circuit judges, seasoned lawyers, and electronic discovery experts round out the additions to the College who will lend their expertise to the next generation of lawyers at Jacksonville University.

The College of Law welcomed 44 first-year students this fall. These seven legal experts will serve the law school as it continues to grow and expand its offerings to students.

Read more about them below:

Ron Angerer, Academic Success Counselor

Ron Angerer is a Florida licensed attorney who, prior to joining Jacksonville University in 2024, practiced law in the Jacksonville, Florida community for more than ten years. Mr. Angerer's practice largely focused on labor and employment and related civil rights matters, and he was recognized as an expert in labor and employment law by the Florida Bar in 2020. Mr. Angerer's published scholarship has focused on labor and employment law, and his work in the Florida Bar Journal was named the Article of the Year by the Labor and Employment Law Section of the Florida Bar.

Katelyn Johnston, Mock Trial Coach, Adjunct Professor

Katleyn Knaak Johnston has been an assistant state attorney with the Fourth Judicial Circuit for over ten years and is a Board-Certified Specialist in Criminal Trial Law. She attended law school at Stetson University College of Law where she graduated with a concentration in advocacy. She recently graduated from Florida State University with a master's in public administration. While at Stetson Professor Johnston was a member of the Trial Team winning multiple national and state championships including the National Trial Competition in 2010. As an ASA she has prosecuted a wide range of cases from misdemeanor to complex multi-defendant homicide including trying over 50 jury trials. Professor Johnston was named Division Chief of County Court in 2017 supervising, training, and mentoring young lawyers within the office. Professor Johnston serves on the Florida Bar's standing Code and Rules of Evidence Committee and the Criminal Procedural Rules Committee.

Judge Scott Makar, Adjunct Professor

Judge Scott Makar serves on Florida's Fifth District Court of Appeal in Florida. He was initially appointed to the First District Court of Appeal by Governor Rick Scott on February 6, 2012, and later recommissioned by Governor Ron DeSantis on January 1, 2023, when Northeast Florida was made a part of the Fifth District.

Prior to his appointment as a judge, he served as the Solicitor General for the State of Florida from 2007 to 2012, appointed by Attorney General Bill McCollum and reappointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi. In that position he argued five cases in the United States Supreme Court, four in a single term, which is a record for state solicitors general. He also served as the Chief of the Appellate Division in the Office of General Counsel for the City of Jacksonville from 2001 to 2007. His private practice experience includes nearly two decades with Holland & Knight in Jacksonville, Tallahassee, and Tampa. He also clerked for Thomas A. Clark of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and interned for the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division.

Judge Makar is a graduate of the University of Florida College of Law, where he also earned his Ph.D. in economics, an MBA and M.A. in economics. He received a B.S. in mathematics and economics from Mercer University.

Over the past four decades, he has taught sixteen different law related courses at colleges and universities including the University of Florida, FSU College of Law (where he held the Richard Ervin Chair), Florida Coastal School of Law, University of North Florida and Jacksonville University. He has also published numerous articles on a wide range of topics in law reviews and journals.

Judge Makar was a founding member of The Florida Bar's Appellate Practice and Advocacy Section and the Appellate Practice Section of the Jacksonville Bar Association. He is the Master Lawyer and an alumnus of the William H. Stafford American Inn of Court and the Master Lawyer of the First District Appellate Inn of Court.

Patrick Murphree, Ph.D., J.D., Assistant Professor of Law

Dr. Murphree's research into the theatre and drama of the French Revolution first ignited his interest in the law. After law school, he clerked for the Honorable Elizabeth Erny Foote of the Western District of Louisiana before joining a plaintiff-side mass tort, class action, and antitrust firm. Alongside his practice, he gave presentations on professionalism to the American Inns of Court and edited the 2023 edition of the Louisiana Legal Services and Pro Bono Desk Manual. Dr. Murphree has taught acting, theatre appreciation, fine arts, public speaking, and LSAT preparation at Indiana University, Tulane University, Northwestern State University of Louisiana, and Kaplan.

Dr. Murphree's publications have appeared in the UMKC Law Review, the Tulane Journal of International and Comparative Law, the Seattle Journal for Social Justice, and the Loyola Law Review. He is currently studying performative representations of Law and Justice and researching conceptions of federalism in complex litigation and in French and American constitutional law.

Chad Roberts, Esq., Adjunct Professor

Chad Roberts serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law and co-Instructor in an advanced Civil Procedures course focusing on modern Electronic Discovery. In 2014, after a successful twenty-year career representing consumers in complex litigation, Mr. Roberts established a law firm focusing exclusively on Electronic Discovery practice.

A frequent lecturer at leading national conferences in Electronic Discovery, Mr. Roberts holds an Engineering Science degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology and graduated with high honors from Florida State University College of Law. He has been a litigation partner at both a large, multi-national law firm (Holland & Knight, LLP) as well as a small boutique trial firm (Spohrer & Dodd, LLP) and has won multi-million dollar trial verdicts as lead trial counsel.

For the last decade, Mr. Roberts' national practice has been to counsel litigation parties and Courts facing the most challenging, cutting-edge tasks of modern electronic discovery in civil litigation.

Judge Natalie Tuttle, Adjunct Professor

Natalie Tuttle currently serves as a General Magistrate/Hearing Officer for the Fourth Judicial Circuit presiding over family law matters. Magistrate Tuttle has been a member of the judiciary since 2017. Prior to becoming a member of the judiciary, Magistrate Tuttle was a full time Professor, and later, the Supervising Attorney/Professor of Law for the In House Family Law Clinic at Florida Coastal School of Law. During her fifteen years of teaching, Magistrate Tuttle, has taught first year and upper level Legal Writing Courses, Florida Practice and Procedure Courses, including Florida Civil Procedure, Florida Criminal Procedure and Florida Family Law Practice and Procedure. Magistrate Tuttle has also taught Family Law (doctrinal course) and family law related Alternative Dispute Resolution courses.

Prior to teaching, Magistrate Tuttle was a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Douglas B. Shivers and Larry G. Smith at the First District Court of Appeal, Tallahassee, Florida. While serving as an Adjunct Professor and before becoming a full time Professor, Magistrate Tuttle continued to practice in the area of complex commercial litigation, appellate litigation, and family law, actively litigating cases in both Federal and State Courts.

Magistrate Tuttle is a Certified Family, Appellate, and County Mediator and has conducted over 800 mediations in Northeast Florida. Magistrate Tuttle has also served as a Custody Evaluator/Social Investigator and Guardian Ad Litem for the Fourth Judicial Circuit and surrounding circuits and Southeast Georgia. She has performed over 150 evaluations and has appeared as an expert in State Court on numerous occasions.

Lisa Varon, Reference Law Librarian

Lisa Varon is a highly experienced trial lawyer with over 30 years of practice in criminal and civil law. She has tried more than 50 felony jury trials to verdict and has extensive knowledge of Florida statutes, case law, and rules of evidence.

Prior to joining JU Law, she was a partner at Fallgatter Catlin & Varon, PA in Jacksonville, representing clients in juvenile, criminal, civil, and post-conviction matters. She has defended juveniles in delinquency court and adults in misdemeanor and felony cases, while also handling civil injunctions and family law issues.

Previously, Varon served as an Assistant Conflict Counsel and an Assistant Public Defender. Lisa earned her Juris Doctorate from Florida State University College of Law and a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations from the University of Florida. She is an active member of the Florida Bar and various professional associations, including the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, where she served as President.

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