Because he took an in-house position immediately after graduating from law school in 2001, Matt Rearden has never billed an hour. Since joining SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment in 2010, Rearden has served as associate general counsel, as vice president of business affairs and currently as senior business development officer.

Since joining Walmart in 2006, Alberto Dominguez has been responsible for a wide range of products, from snacks to prescription drugs to household cleaning items. Now as a senior VP, general merchandise manager for the company, he is responsible for every adult beverage product that ends up on the shelves of Walmart stores across the U.S. and in Puerto Rico.

As a reporter covering a high-profile death penalty case, Nancy Daniels was drawn to criminal law. Although she thought journalism would be her life-long profession, Daniels applied to law school after her editor remarked that Daniels had an aptitude for legal issues. At the end of 2016, Daniels will retire after serving for 26 years as public defender for the 2nd Judicial Circuit.

When William N. “Willie” Meggs retires in December 2016 as state attorney for the Second Judicial Circuit of Florida, he will have spent more than 40 years prosecuting cases for the office. Meggs has been around courtrooms for even longer. He began his career in law enforcement, taking undergraduate classes at Florida State while working full time.

Elizabeth C. & Clyde W. Atkinson Professor Erin Ryan joined the College of Law faculty in 2015. She draws upon her unique experiences and background as she teaches and researches in the areas of environmental and natural resources law, property and land use, water law, negotiation, and federalism.

Dunbar Family Professor Steve Johnson knew from the time he was a law student that he wanted to teach. After practicing tax law for 14 years, he joined academia and has become a nationally recognized scholar on tax procedure.

Alum Kimberly Holladay has been in-house with the same company, in various iterations, since she left private practice in 2000. She became Senior Counsel-Corporate for Veritiv Corporation through a July 2014 merger. That merger and the fact that Veritiv is barely a year old has made Holladay’s recent work especially exciting.

Dean Don Weidner is stepping down as dean in June 2016. During his 20+ years as dean, he has transformed the law school in countless ways. Most obviously, he has led the College of Law into the top tier of U.S. law schools.

After spending more than 30 years practicing complex civil litigation, alum Bruce Blackwell began a second career as CEO/executive director of The Florida Bar Foundation. Leading the organization is an excellent fit for Blackwell, who has a long history of service to the profession and who took on many difficult pro bono cases during his career.

Benjamin Crump was sworn in as president of the National Bar Association (NBA) on July 23, 2015. Through his NBA service and the cases that have catapulted him into the national spotlight, Crump is seeking justice for people who might not find it otherwise.