Wendi Adelson is a South Florida native, leaving only to pursue her undergraduate degree and teach at FSU. Adelson, now a law clerk for a federal appeals judge in Miami, didnt respond to requests for comment.
As a teen, Adelson won an armful of awards (including a Silver Knight) for Starting Blocks, a charity she began to give toys and educational material to underprivileged children.
"I was thinking about the advantages I had, " Adelson told the Herald in 1995. "All kids don't get the same start and I wished everyone got the same educational opportunities as I had."
She left South Florida for Brandeis University but returned to attend University of Miami law.
As a second-year law student, she was a clinical intern at the Center for Ethics and Public Service at University of Miami Law School. She wrote editorials in the Herald about injustice in the treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers.
One year later she married Markel and became a law professor specializing in humanitarian immigration. She got a favorable score on ratemyprofessors.com (plus a chili pepper for hotness).
Both lawyers kept blogs. Markels PrawfsBlawg was popular enough to spawn an international following soon after his first post in 2005. His last post, the night before his murder, mused on the death penalty. The blog continues on, filled with legal posts from a network of influential lawyers and legal scholars.
Adelsons Human Trafficking Law Blog is less renowned but bolsters her influence in the human trafficking activism world. The most recent post was in September.
At FSU, she was director of the Human Rights and Immigration Law Project, which also dealt with the influx of sex trafficked teens brought to Miami for the 2010 Super Bowl.