Bruce R. Jacob

Professor Jacob began his career in 1960 as an assistant attorney general for the State of Florida. There he represented the respondent in Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963). Upon leaving that office, he engaged in the private practice of law in Bartow and Lakeland, Fla., in the firm of Holland, Bevis & Smith, now Holland & Knight. Following the completion of his LL.M. degree at Northwestern University, Professor Jacob joined the faculty of Emory University School of Law, where he established the Legal Assistance for Inmates Program at the Atlanta Penitentiary. He was appointed by the Supreme Court as counsel for petitioner in Kaufman v. United States, 394 U.S. 217 (1969). While at the Harvard Law School, he served as a research associate in the Center for Criminal Justice, assisted in the establishment of the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project, and supervised the work of law students in the defense of criminal cases and in the representation of indigents in civil matters in the Community Legal Assistance Office, Cambridge, Mass.

Professor Jacob subsequently served as professor and director of Clinical Programs at The Ohio State University College of Law, as dean and professor of the Mercer University School of Law and as vice president of Stetson University and dean of Stetson University College of Law from 1981-94. He is an author and co-author of articles on criminal law and procedure, civil rights and civil liberties, and the administrative law of corrections. While on sabbatical leave during 1994-95, he took courses in the LL.M. program in Taxation at the University of Florida College of Law, and received that LL.M. in 1995. In 2006, the members of an American Inn of Court in Tampa honored Professor Jacob, naming their Inn the "Bruce R. Jacob Criminal Appellate Inn of Court."

He was honored by the Stetson faculty when in 2009 Stetson began hiring entry level assistant professors who are known as “Bruce R. Jacob Fellows.” They spend two years at Stetson, developing courses, teaching and writing in preparation for a career as a law professor. In 2013 was one of four persons presented with “Constitutional Champion” awards by the Constitution Project, Washington, D.C. Also, in 2013 received the Delano Stewart Award from the George Edgecomb Bar Association, Tampa for his contributions to achieving diversity in the legal profession.

Since beginning his teaching career in 1965, he has taught 20 different law school courses. At present, he teaches in the areas of constitutional law, administrative law, criminal law and criminal procedure.