{"id":287064,"date":"2026-05-28T03:58:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T03:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/287064\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T03:58:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T03:58:18","slug":"faculty-spotlight-how-fsus-rima-nathan-turns-legal-education-into-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/287064\/","title":{"rendered":"Faculty spotlight: How FSU&#8217;s Rima Nathan turns legal education into action"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Estate planning is one of several areas that the clinic assists with, according to Nathan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwo-thirds of Americans have no plan for what\u2019s going to happen when they can no longer talk to the doctor, or what\u2019s going to happen to all their things after they pass away,\u201d Nathan said. \u201cThese can be overwhelming concepts for people because it contemplates death. What the students get to experience is how to walk a client through those questions in a way that\u2019s empathetic, and in a way that also prepares them to be good lawyers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nathan teaches her students how to walk the fine line of communicating with a client effectively while making sure they provide the best service. Prior to directing the Claude Pepper Elder Law Clinic, she practiced in the areas of complex civil litigation, trials and appeals, and served as a judicial clerk to Justice Jorge Labarga of the Supreme Court of Florida.<\/p>\n<p>As an Alumna of FSU, Nathan earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in international affairs and political science. She then obtained her juris doctor in 2019 at the <a href=\"http:\/\/law.fsu.edu\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FSU College of Law<\/a>, where she focused on work at the FSU Public Interest Law Center\u2019s Children\u2019s Advocacy Clinic, the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau and the Southern Poverty Law Center.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-128446\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Rima_Nathan_Quote.png\" alt=\"A quote graphic for Rima Nathan.\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Her experience in public interest law positions her to teach the complexities that come with elder law \u2013 a multidisciplinary field that involves issues related to healthcare policy, guardianship, housing, consumer protection, scams and much more. As the baby boomer population ages and long-term care costs continue to rise, the practice continues to be as important as ever in ensuring senior citizens are protected and empowered to make dignified choices for themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Nathan offers students a chance for experiential learning that accelerates their career growth \u2013 a point of pride for the clinic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Claude Pepper Elder Law Clinic is like an on-campus internship that law students and graduate students in other fields can enroll in,\u201d Nathan said. \u201cWhereas with externships, you might go off campus, go work at the public defender\u2019s office or at a court, our clinic acts as a legal aid firm on the law school\u2019s campus that serves people who are 60 and older and low income.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Claude Pepper Elder Law Clinic is like an on-campus internship that law students and graduate students in other fields can enroll in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u2013 Rima Nathan, director of The Claude Pepper Elder Law Clinic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Estate planning is one of several areas that the clinic assists with, according to Nathan. \u201cTwo-thirds of Americans&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[59139,13586,232,234,233],"class_list":["post-287064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-college-of-law","tag-fsu-health","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}