TALLAHASSEE—Debra Lyn Bassett, an associate professor at Michigan State University-DCL College of Law, will join Florida State University as an associate professor with tenure in fall 2003. Bassett will teach Civil Procedure, Federal Jurisdiction, Professional Responsibility, and Complex Civil Litigation. 

She is one of four new faculty members who will begin teaching at the law school in the fall. The other three will teach in the areas of business and commercial law. 

Bassett clerked for the Honorable Mary M. Schroeder, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and practiced law with Morrison Foerster in San Francisco. 

She graduated from the University of California Davis School of Law, where she was senior articles editor of the U.C. Davis Law Review. Her scholarship is focused largely in the areas of federal litigation and legal ethics. In addition to her frequent law journal publications, Bassett is co-author of two popular professional responsibility casebooks, Problems in Legal Ethics (6th ed., West Group 2003) and California Legal Ethics (4th ed., West Group 2003). 

“Professor Debbie Bassett is an established and highly productive legal scholar who writes on civil procedure and legal ethics,” says Dean Don Weidner. “We are delighted to welcome Debra to FSU College of Law, where she will broaden course offerings in litigation and professionalism.” 

Bassett is the 15th new tenured or tenure-track faculty member to join the ranks of FSU College of Law faculty since 1998. 

Other lateral hires in recent years include:

• Frederick Abbott, international intellectual property law, from Chicago-Kent College of Law-Illinois Institute of Technology
• Mary Crossley, health law, from the University of California-Hastings
• Joseph Dodge, tax law, from the University of Texas at Austin
• Tahirih Lee, Chinese law, from the University of Minnesota
• David Markell, environmental law, from Albany Law School
• Gregory Mitchell, behavioral analysis of law, from Michigan State University-DCL College of Law
• Jim Rossi, regulated industries/administrative law, from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
• J.B. Ruhl, environmental law, from Southern Illinois University Fernando Teson, international human rights/legal philosophy, from Arizona State University