Dr. Marvin E. Newman

Professor of Legal Studies and Organizational Communication.  Director of the Rollins College Center for Prelaw Advising.

Contact Information:

Dr. Marvin Newman taught his first class at Rollins College as an adjunct lecturer in 1961 teaching courses in ethics, law and business in the College of Arts and Sciences and the School for Continuing Education (the previous name for the college's Hamilton Holt School). In 1972 he became a tenured Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences after distinguishing himself in his research and publications as an expert in bioethical issues. In the 1960's he founded one of the largest international law firms in Central Florida and became a noted trial lawyer. Over the next twenty six years he tried more than three hundred cases in forty states and three nations and has written amicus curae briefs for cases pending before the United States Supreme Court.

An internationally acclaimed scholar in the fields of thanatology and legal ethics, Dr. Newman is the author of over sixty peer reviewed published papers and co-author of four major books in his field of expertise. His research in patients' rights and particularly physician assisted suicide earned him numerous research grants including two such grants from the Netherlands where he interviewed twenty seven patients, their families, physicians, and religious leaders in instances where physician assisted suicide was elected. Those interviews were published and led to further research grants in The Netherlands, Switzerland, England and at several major hospitals and universities in the United States. Professor Newman has given more than one hundred presentations at regional, national and international conferences in the areas of medical and legal ethics and sociologic jurisprudence and has been the key note speaker at major educational conferences.

In 1996, Dr. Newman was the recipient of the Arthur Vining Davis Fellowship which is granted annually to the outstanding professor at Rollins College. One year earlier he received the prestigious Hugh and Jeanette McKean Grant, considered the highest prize granted by the college.

Professor Newman serves on the bioethics committees of the following institutions: MD Anderson Cancer Clinic, Orlando Regional Medical Center, Lucerne Hospital and Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Women. Additionally, he has served as ethics consultant to numerous hospitals, charitable organizations, and corporations and for six ears instructed executives in the Walt Disney Corporation at that organization's Disney University in the fields of law and ethics.

Dr. Newman is a tenured member of the Rollins College of Arts and Sciences and has additionally taught honors courses in the college and graduate courses for more than thirty years in the college's Crummer School of Management, and has, since its inception, regularly taught courses in the college's Master of Liberal Studies Program and in the graduate program in Communication. His courses include: Bioethics, Death and Dying, Great Trials of the Centuries, Evolution and Law, Communication Ethics, Communication Law, Ethical and Legal Issues in Corporate Communication Technology, Managerial Law and Ethics. He has been voted the Crummer School's outstanding professor on fourteen occasions and is the recipient of seven other awards for distinguished teaching. He has taught as visiting professor at Washington University School of Law, Vassar College and Sarah Lawrence College. He regularly teaches continuing medical education courses for physicians.

Professor Newman has appeared on national and local television as an expert on current issues involving the Human Genome Project, stem cell research, physician assisted suicide, organ transplantation and the Geneva Convention. He has often been quoted in The New York Times, The American Bar Journal, The Florida Bar Journal, The Miami Herald, The Chicago Tribune, The Orlando Sentinel and other published media.

In 1982 the President of the college on recommendation of the Provost, the Board of trustees and the college's deans awarded to Dr. Newman the College's Decoration of Honor. He is one of three members of the faculty to have received that distinction.

Additional grants include: The National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington University College of Law and on nine occasions from Rollins College. Dr. Newman has received several awards for distinctive service to community organizations, including: The Holocaust Resource Center of Central Florida, Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Women, Hospice of Central Florida, Hospice of Volusia County, Florida, Give The Kids The World Foundation, Make A Wish Foundation, Catholic Social Services, Jewish Family Services, Orlando Regional Medical center, The Florida Bar, The American Bar Association and The Association of Trial Lawyers of America.

Dr. Newman received his Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Laws and Juris Doctor degrees from Northwestern University magna cum laude. He served as a member of the law school's Law Review. He has served as President of the Rollins College Faculty and chaired nine of the college's major committees. He is a member of the Federal Bar, The Illinois State Bar, The Florida Bar, a certified State of Florida Mediator, and has been admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.

Professor Newman resides with his wife of forty six years, Myrna, in Lake Mary, Florida. They are the parents of four daughters and ten grandchildren.

Academic Degrees:

Courses Taught:

INT 400 Death and Dying: An examination of the legal and ethical issues in the practice of withholding treatment from terminally ill persons, the "Baby Jane Doe" cases, the concept of "mercy killing," active euthanasia, suicide, capital punishment and the implications of surviving death. In addition to case studies and professor's lectures, guest lecturers from various related disciplines and survivors of the Holocaust, Hiroshima, and recent terrorist activities will meet in workshop sessions with the class.

MBA 503 Legal, Ethical, and Social Issues of Business: This course is offered to teach students about commitment to a moral business philosophy, indispensable for a business career as stated by Cicero in his De Officiis in 44 B.C. The course reinforces the belief that the study of ethics, especially in its application to the world of practical affairs, is perhaps more urgent today than it has ever been in the history of our civilization. This course takes up the challenge by focusing on the area of business activity. An examination of modern social issues facing business management is covered with particular emphasis upon the interaction of business and government and upon the formulation of corporate social policy.