CYNTHIA G. HAWKINS-LEÓN
Professor of Law

B.A., Wellesley College – Cum Laude equivalent
J.D., Harvard Law School

 Stetson University College of Law
Professor Hawkins-León teaches Family Law, Family Mediation, Adoption Law Seminar and Property. As time permits, she will teach Criminal Law; Administrative Law; and Race & the Law. Professor Hawkins-León was an Associate Professor at New England School of Law (Boston, MA) from 2000 through 2002. Previously, she was an Associate Professor at Syracuse University College of Law and an Assistant Professor at Duquesne University School of Law (Pittsburgh, PA). She is a full, tenured professor here at Stetson.

Prior to joining the academy, she served as an Administrative/Magistrate Judge for the Contract Appeals Board in Washington, D.C., as General Counsel for the District of Columbia Department of Administrative Services, and as Committee Counsel and Staff Director for the Committee on Government Operations of the Council of the District of Columbia.

Professor Hawkins-León has written articles on topics that include Florida’s ban on “lesbi-gay” adoption; transracial adoption; the expansion of kinship care and adoption as a solution to the U.S. foster care and adoption crises; the adoption crisis facing African-American families and potential solutions through application of the Indian Child Welfare Act; the history of the insanity defense and its fictional application as analyzed using the "literature as law" approach, a phrase she has coined; and a comparison of the Socratic and problem methods in legal education.

Professor Hawkins-León is the past Chair of the AALS Women in Legal Education section. She is also an Executive Board Member for the Florida Chapter of Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. Professor Hawkins-León is also an active member of the St. Petersburg Bar Association and an affiliate member of the Florida Bar Association. She is admitted to practice law both Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

Courses
  • Adoption Law Seminar
  • Family Law
  • Family Law Mediation
  • Property I & II
Selected Publications
  • Race and Transracial Adoption: The Answer is Neither Simply Black or White nor Right or Wrong, 51 Cath. U. L. Rev. 1227 (2002)
  • The Transracial Adoption Debate: Counseling and Legal Implications 80 J. ON COUNSELING AND DEV. 433 (2002) (co-authored).
  • "Literature As Law": The History of the Insanity Plea and a Fictional Application Within the Law & Literature Canon, 72 TEMP. L. REV. 383 (1999)
  • The Socratic Method-Problem Method Dichotomy: The Debate Over Teaching Method Continues, 1998 B.Y.U. EDUC. & L. J. 1 (1998).
  • The Indian Child Welfare Act and the African American Tribe: Facing the Adoption Crisis, 36 BRANDEIS J. FAM. L. 201 (1998).
  • To Promote the General Welfare: A Communitarian Legal Reader, by David E. Carney (ed.), 10 LAW. & POLITICS BOOK REV. 383 (June 2000) (book review).
  • Pan-Africanism, in 2 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CIVIL RIGHTS IN THE UNITED STATES 587, (Macmillan 2000).
  • Criminal Justice in Scotland, by Peter Duff and Neil Hutton (eds.), 9 LAW & POLITICS BOOK REV. 554 (December 1999) (book review).
  • Gender Perceptions and the Law, by Christine R. Barker, Elizabeth A. Kirk and Monica Sah (Eds.), 9 LAW & POLITICS BOOK REV. 288 (July 1999) (book review).

Cynthia G. Hawkins-León
Stetson University College of Law
1401 61st Street South
St. Petersburg, FL 33707
(727) 562-7885
chawkins@law.stetson.edu