Professor of Law Emeritus

Family Law, Unified Family Court Seminar

Ruth Fleet Thurman is co-author of the Primer on Legal Writing and has written articles, monographs and books on the subjects of professional responsibility and family law, her major fields of teaching and research. She engaged in the private practice of law for nearly thirteen years before joining the Stetson faculty in 1975, and was the first woman to serve as assistant state attorney in the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Florida. She has the distinction of being Stetson's first female full-time law professor.

Professor Thurman is a former member of the Florida Board of Bar Examiners, the Board of Visitors of the United States Army Judge Advocate General's School, The Florida Bar Board of Certification, Designation and Advertising, and is past president of the Florida Association of Women Lawyers. She served on The Florida Bar Special Study Committee on the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, and the editorial board of The Florida Bar Journal. She also served on the advisory council of the American Bar Association "Ethics 2000 Commission," and the A.B.A. Legal Writing Committee. She is a life fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and for many years, was a member of the House of Representatives of the Association of American Law Schools. She was a founding member of the Canakaris Inn of Court.

In 1989, Professor Thurman was a visiting scholar at Wolfson College and member of the Faculty of Law of Cambridge University in England. In1994, Stetson University awarded her the Homer and Dolly Hand Award for Excellence in Faculty Scholarship. In 1998, she received the "Unsung Hero Award" from the Stetson Child and Family Law Association for "outstanding service to children and families of Tampa Bay through work with the Stetson University College of Law."