Pasco native graduates from Stetson Law with honors

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Pasco native graduates from Stetson Law with honors

SUNCOAST NEWS STAFF REPORT

Published: May 23, 2009

NEW PORT RICHEY - After graduating as the Stetson University College of Law "Most Distinguished Student," Pasco County native Chris Sprowls said he intends to work here as a prosecutor.

After taking the Bar exam in July, Sprowls hopes to work as an assistant state attorney with the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's office.

Sprowls received his juris doctor degree from Stetson University College of Law, in Gulfport, May 16, according to a press release.

The night before, Sprowls learned he had been chosen as the Edward D. Foreman Most Distinguished Student. The Foreman award is given to a graduating student who demonstrates a passion for the legal profession and a commitment to service to people.

At the ceremony, Sprowls addressed the faculty and student body, thanked his family and professors, and challenged his fellow students.

The Stetson graduates should tackle "whatever tasks are required of us, whatever burden our leadership requires that we bear, and whatever role our communities need us to fill," Sprowls said.

After the ceremony, Sprowls' name was cast in bronze outside Stetson's Great Hall.

Sprowls is the first Stetson Law student to chair the American Bar Association Law Student Division and is a former division delegate to the ABA House of Delegates.

As chair of the ABA Law Student Division, Sprowls has been spokesperson for the ABA's 52,000 student members.

He served as a pro-bono advocate for veterans, starting Duty Bound, a national project to assist veterans in obtaining the benefits they are entitled to receive.

Go online to www.abanet.org/lsd/veterans> to learn more.

He was also instrumental in the creation of an on-campus veterans' advocacy clinic at Stetson Law and a $25,000 grant that the Florida Bar awarded to the clinic.

As a student at Stetson Law, Sprowls was a legal intern for the Committee on Homeland Security in Washington D.C., chairman of the Florida Federation of Law School Republicans, and an award-winning member of Stetson Law's Trial Team and Moot Court Board.

Sprowls received an award for Best Oralist in the Carlton Fields First Year Appellate Advocacy Competition, and national recognition for advocacy at the ABA's National Regional Appellate Advocacy Competition in St. Louis. This "Who's Who Among America's Law Students" honoree also received numerous other honors at graduation, including induction into the Order of Barristers.

He received his bachelor's degree in political science from the University of South Florida in 2006.

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Pasco native graduates from Stetson Law with honors