Professor Ruth Stone, co-director of the Florida State University College of Law Public Interest Law Center, has been appointed the Wayne and Pat Hogan Professor of Trial Practice. The professorship is funded by the Wayne and Patricia Hogan Endowment, which was established in 1999 with a gift of $2 million.

Professor Ruth Stone Wayne Hogan Stone directs the Family Law Clinic at the Public Interest Law Center. She also serves as faculty advisor and a coach for the College of Law’s Mock Trial Team. Under her leadership, the Mock Trial Team has won first place in numerous statewide and national competitions, including the 2012 National Criminal Trial Advocacy Competition held in San Francisco in October.

“I’m so pleased that this has occurred,” said Wayne Hogan, who practices personal injury law at Terrell Hogan in Jacksonville. “She has been dedicated to the Mock Trial Team the whole time she’s been at the College of Law. Ruth has seen to it that there’s top-level coaching, and that all the needs of the mock trial program are met so the students can focus on becoming great advocates in the courtroom. The successes of the program simply could not have occurred without the dedication of Ruth Stone. For the law school and the dean to make this decision pleases Pat and me very much because we respect and appreciate Ruth’s important work for a generation of young and now successful practicing trial lawyers. This appointment continues that tradition.”

A 1976 graduate of the Florida State University College of Law, Stone joined the law school faculty in 1995. She is licensed to practice in Florida and Alabama. Prior to her teaching career, Stone practiced with Florida Legal Services in Pensacola, served as an assistant state attorney in the juvenile division of the State Attorney's Office, and was the managing attorney for the Gadsden Region of Legal Services Corporation of Alabama.