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Selected as a Champion Beyond the Game in 2015 Carol L. Zeiner, a
member of FSU's first women's swim team, competed in the NCAA women's
nationals in 1970 making it to the finals. As a 3-year Tarpon synchronized
swimmer, she competed in events in which the team won first and second
place international awards. She graduated magna cum laude in Education from
FSU, then magna cum laude from the University of Miami School of Law,
ranked third in her class. Zeiner practiced complex transactional law with
two prestigious law firms and Wometco Enterprises, before becoming College
Attorney, the first in-house counsel of Miami-Dade Community College, the
largest college in the U.S. She reduced outside counsel costs from $1.4
million to approximately $320,000 per year with an in-house staff of two
attorneys while supporting enrollment growth, expansion of three campuses,
and addition of a new campus and a new center. Zeiner assisted in gaining
approval for new programs and baccalaureate degrees and with the re-write
of the Florida Education Code. Over the years, she used her teaching
skills, first to help classmates and then to guide junior lawyers. Today, a
tenured, full professor at St. Thomas University School of Law, Zeiner is
combining her love of teaching with her extensive experience in law
practice to prepare the next generation of lawyers. She has spoken at
numerous conferences and is the author of many articles. Her writing in
therapeutic jurisprudence seeks to improve the practice, application and
revision of law to enhance the well-being, particularly the emotional
well-being, of persons impacted by laws. She seeks to transport therapeutic
jurisprudence from the people-related fields of law where it began to
business-related fields such as eminent domain, business negotiations, and
higher education law.
Carol L. Zeiner has been a member of the law
faculty at St. Thomas University since 2002. Prior to becoming a law
professor, Professor Zeiner practiced law with two prestigious
Florida-based law firms and in the in-house legal department of Wometco
Enterprises. In 1991 she became College Attorney, the first in-house
counsel of Miami-Dade College (then Miami-Dade Community College) where she
created and managed the in-house legal department as well as providing
legal advice and legal services to the College and the Board of Trustees
for over a decade. As College Attorney, Professor Zeiner reduced outside
legal costs from $1.4 million to approximately $320,000 per year with a
staff of two attorneys, while supporting enrollment growth, expansion of
three campuses, addition of a new campus, and addition of new center. She
assisted with gaining approval for new programs and baccalaureate degrees
and with the rewrite of the Florida Education Code. She created and
implemented a program to increase the number of law firms and lawyer
diversity of attorneys approved to provide outside legal services to the
College. Today, a tenured, full professor, Zeiner is combining her love
of teaching with her extensive experience in law practice to prepare the
next generation of lawyers. She has spoken at conferences and is the author
of many articles. Her writing in therapeutic jurisprudence, a field in
which she is considered a leader, seeks to enhance the well-being,
particularly the emotional well-being, of persons impacted by laws and
legal processes. She seeks to transport therapeutic jurisprudence from the
people-related fields of law where it began to business-related fields such
as eminent domain, business negotiations, and higher education law.
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