Faculty spotlight: How FSU’s Rima Nathan turns legal education into action

Estate planning is one of several areas that the clinic assists with, according to Nathan.

“Two-thirds of Americans have no plan for what’s going to happen when they can no longer talk to the doctor, or what’s going to happen to all their things after they pass away,” Nathan said. “These 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’s empathetic, and in a way that also prepares them to be good lawyers.”

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.

As an Alumna of FSU, Nathan earned her bachelor’s degree in international affairs and political science. She then obtained her juris doctor in 2019 at the FSU College of Law, where she focused on work at the FSU Public Interest Law Center’s Children’s Advocacy Clinic, the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Her experience in public interest law positions her to teach the complexities that come with elder law – 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.

Nathan offers students a chance for experiential learning that accelerates their career growth – a point of pride for the clinic.

“The Claude Pepper Elder Law Clinic is like an on-campus internship that law students and graduate students in other fields can enroll in,” Nathan said. “Whereas with externships, you might go off campus, go work at the public defender’s office or at a court, our clinic acts as a legal aid firm on the law school’s campus that serves people who are 60 and older and low income.”

“The Claude Pepper Elder Law Clinic is like an on-campus internship that law students and graduate students in other fields can enroll in.”

– Rima Nathan, director of The Claude Pepper Elder Law Clinic