suny buffalo law forum - fall 2013

SUNY BUFFALO LAW

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T h e M a g a z i n e o f S U N Y B u f f a l o L a w S c h o o l T h e S t a t e U n i v e r s i t y o f N e w Y o r k

Class of 2016 begins their journey

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Message From the Dean1 We continue to plan strategically

Law School Report2 Gov. Cuomo makes two Law School appearances3 High spirits as the Law School’s largest-ever capital campaign kicks off 4 Kicking off our campaign with a bang!6 Undergraduates get a rigorous preview of life in law school7 Buffalo Criminal Law Center puts scholars in touch worldwide8 At Commencement, a call to action 10 A week of events orients new students to law school life14 Students reflect on their summer work in the public interest16 Students step up for those adjusting to life after prison17 What to do with 90,000 wild cats? Pro bonoproject seeks an answer18 International internships19 Student participates in war crimes trial20 Basement renovations create new tech-enabled classrooms21 Fall courses renew emphasis on international law22 Obama speaks on campus, making UB history

Faculty23 Two professors active in federal court criminal cases24 Six faculty members receive new academic designations

25 LAWR lecturer Patrick Long ’00 honored for teaching skillsAnne Marie Swartz receives outstanding service award from her peers

Alumni26 John Formichella ’96 finds his niche in Thailand27 In Switzerland, Brent Nowicki ’06 helps settle athletic disputes 28 2013-14 Alumni Association leadership elected30 Alumni photos from across the chapters

As We Go to Press32 Mitchell Lecture: Learning by Doing

Visit us at www.law.buffalo.edu

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SUNY BUFFALO LAW

FORUMThe Magazine of SUNY Buffalo Law SchoolThe State University of New York

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Chief JudgeLippmankeynotescommencement

Pro bonoproject

Orientationweek

Thomas E. Black Jr. ’79at Campaign Kickoff

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1S U N Y B U F F A L O L A W F O R U M • F A L L 2 0 1 3

It gives me great plea-sure to once againreach out to you atthe start of an excitingacademic year. Sever-

al weeks ago, I had the plea-sure of addressing the in-coming IL class. That sin-gular event reminds meevery year what a specialplace SUNY Buffalo LawSchool truly is. We receiveeach year among the bestand brightest minds forwhom we bear the respon-sibility of educating lawyersof conscience. This year’sclass – 200 strong – isamong the most diverse.Even with the challengesfacing our profession, weare still able to advance ourgoals. While challenges re-main, SUNY Buffalo LawSchool is weathering themwell. We have been in renaissance mode

for the last five years. It is because ofyou that we have been able to do re-markable things even as economicstorms have buffeted us. We have hired17 new faculty since I became dean, andare being joined this year by three excel-lent additions – Professors Anya Bern-stein, Luis Chiesa and Anjana Ma-holtra. The three culminate a hiringboom that is unprecedented in the his-tory of the school. More than one-thirdof our faculty joined us in the last fiveyears. And that is not all. Our Cam-paign for SUNY Buffalo Law School –whose goal is $30 million – is now over60 percent of the way there. We have so

far raised over $18 million, a figure nev-er reached before. I know that withyour generosity, we will hit the finishline in great form.Our physical infrastructure has

never looked better. Even I marvelevery time I walk through the first floor.Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York saidto me during one of his several visits tothe Law School this year – and I quote –“you’ve turned this place in to a mag-nificent, clean building.” I was walkingwith him from the Francis M. LetroCourtroom through the first floor tothe Charles B. Sears Law Library wherehe announced the formation of the his-toric Moreland Commission to Investi-gate Public Corruption. I was verypleased that Gov. Cuomo – who hasgraced our Law School several times tomake key pronouncements – noticedthe work that has been done with yourgenerous support. But I would be re-

miss to end this section with-out telling you about thebasement – the most im-proved part of our building.We have completely redonethe basement – technology inthe classrooms, carpeting, art-work. It looks like the lowerlevel of a high-class hotel.Please come take a peek.We continue to plan

strategically in the face of thechallenges facing the profes-sion. There is every indica-tion that the landscape haschanged – perhaps forever.There are fewer applicationsto law schools, and the jobmarket remains tepid. Likeothers, we are looking forways to innovate and create.We will be reaching out toyou in the months and yearsahead for your ideas as wegrapple with these issues. Finally, we have new excit-

ing programs such as the two-year J.D.for foreign-trained lawyers. This pro-gram – available at only two otherschools – is on the cutting edge and thefirst of its kind in New York. It willmake our Law School more vibrantand global. We expect that it will trulytake off in a few years. I see great thingsahead for us, and want to thank you forall that you do. Go Bulls!

“Even with the challenges facing our profession, we are still able

to advance our goals”

Makau W. Mutua, dean of SUNY Buffalo Law School, and Hon. John G. Roberts Jr., chief justice of the United States,at the Chautauqua Institution.

Message from the Dean

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2 Law School Report

New York Gov. Andrew M.Cuomo made two high-pro-file appearances at SUNYBuffalo Law School, less than

a month apart, to press his point: Hewill make anti-corruption measuresand campaign finance reforms happen“one way or another.” During his first appearance, at a

June 12 address before about 200 peo-ple in the Charles B. Sears Law Library,the first-term governor acknowledgedthe recent rash of scandals among statelegislators and said the time is right forthe reforms he has proposed in thethree-part Public Trust Act. “Any relationship is only as good as

the level of trust in it, whether it’s pro-fessional or personal,” the governorsaid. “And when citizens lose trust ingovernment, it hurts the functionalityof the government. ”The proposal would empower dis-

trict attorneys to prosecute those whoshow intent to bribe a public official,whether or not the bribe took place;create a new crime called “corruptingthe government” that would carry a 25-year prison sentence and a lifetime banfrom doing business with the state;make it a crime for any public official tofail to report bribery; and ban corruptpublic officials from receiving state con-tracts, holding elected office, serving asa lobbyist or being a Medicaid provider.In addition, Cuomo proposed a set

of election law reforms, most notably toprovide public funding for politicalcampaigns in an attempt to reduce theinfluence of big-money donors on NewYork elections. His proposals alsowould require candidates to disclosecontributions within 48 hours; estab-lish lower contribution limits in cam-paigns for state offices; and treat limitedliability corporations as corporations,not individuals, lowering the limit ontheir political contributions.His overall goal, Cuomo said, is to

make the state government more effec-tive. “I believe in the capacity of govern-ment; I believe in the function of gov-

ernment. I want to restore public trustbecause I want to make governmentstronger. “All government is, is the organizing

collective for society. It’s important thatthat institution works and that we be-lieve in it and trust it, because if youdon’t, you limit our capacity to do goodthings.” In his June appearance, Cuomo put

pressure on the Assembly and StateSenate to enact these reforms swiftly.But after state lawmakers adjournedtheir session without acting on the gov-ernor’s proposals, Cuomo returned tothe Law School on July 2 to announcePlan B: invoking the state’s MorelandAct and convening a special commis-sion to address what he called “deficien-cies in the law.”In his second SUNY Buffalo Law

appearance, Cuomo announced thathe had formed such a commission, say-ing it may even prove superior to thelaws that legislators had rejected. Thecommission, which has already begunits work, includes Erie County District

Attorney Frank A. Sedita III, a 1986graduate of SUNY Buffalo Law School,and Law School Dean Makau W. Mu-tua, whom the governor described as“courageous.”“They haven’t designed a perfect

human being yet, and you will havepoliticians doing bad things,” Cuomotold reporters following his address be-fore about 75 invited guests in the lawlibrary. “The question is, do you have asystem in place that, when someonedoes the wrong thing, they get caughtand prosecuted? Do you have a systemin place that is designing a better way toremove the loopholes, etc., so that it isharder for people to do the wrongthing? That’s what I want addressed.”Cuomo called the 25-member

Commission to Investigate Public Cor-ruption “the “best and the brightest ...the all-star team” and said it would lookinto “systemic corruption and the ap-pearance of such corruption in stategovernment, political campaigns andelections in New York State.”

Gov. Cuomo makes twoLaw School appearances

Above, Law School Vice Dean JamesR. Newton, SUNY Trustee Eunice A.Lewin and Erie Community CollegePresident Jack QuinnLeft, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Dean Makau W. Mutua

For more photos visit: www.law.buffalo.edu/forum/extra

Dr. Satish K.Tripathi, UBPresident,and ErieCountyDistrictAttorneyFrank A.Sedita III ’86


With cheerleaders, confettiand camaraderie, theLaw School launchedthe public phase of the

Campaign for SUNY Buffalo Law –the most ambitious capital campaignin the school’s history.With a fund-raising goal of $30

million, the campaign – whose themeis “Our Time Is Now” – seeks to en-sure SUNY Buffalo Law’s place as apremier public law school. It was in-troduced at a gala kickoff event onApril 26 at Buffalo’s historic Klein-hans Music Hall (photos on pages 4and 5). Over 150 alumni, friends, fac-ulty and students were on hand asdignitaries including Law SchoolDean Makau W. Mutua and UB Presi-dent Satish K. Tripathi spoke of theopportunities the campaign presentsfor legal education.The campaign is well on its way: It

was announced at the kickoff eventthat $17.7 million had been pledgedduring the quiet phase of the effort.“The Campaign for SUNY Buffalo

Law signals a new era of unprecedent-ed private support for the LawSchool,” says Karen R. Kaczmarski ’89,associate dean for development. “Weare dreaming big and those dreamsare becoming a reality, thanks to thehelp of so many of our alumni andfriends, on whom we must rely asstate support evaporates. We aredeeply grateful to all who have sup-ported the campaign so far, and inviteeveryone to join us as we continue ourjourney to success.”At the kickoff, the campaign’s four

alumni co-chairs outlined the cam-paign’s priorities: endowed facultychairs and professorships, studentscholarships, endowed program sup-port and infrastructure funding – allto help SUNY Buffalo Law remain anattractive choice for lawyers in train-ing. Among their comments:


Great expectationsHigh spirits as the Law School’s largest-ever capital campaign kicks off

“This is a historicmoment for theLaw School. We start-ed the quiet phase ofthis campaign overthree years ago, chart-ing a course for thebiggest fundraisinginitiative ever in thehistory of our school.Our vision is to beglobally recognizedand nationallyrenowned for scholar-ship, education andservice. We knew, inorder to realize our vi-sion, that we’d needresources – significantresources. In this dayand age, resourcesmake all the differencebetween a good lawschool and one that isgreat. That is why westarted this campaign– and why it is so criti-cal to the Law School’sfuture.”

“Our goal is to helpshape the future ofSUNY Buffalo LawSchool – to keepbuilding a world-classlaw school that willcontinue to educate,elevate, advocate andinnovate. We can dothat by strengtheningour four pillars: at-tracting and retainingstar faculty, recruitingthe best students, de-veloping outstandingprograms and creat-ing a modern infra-structure. To do thesethings, we need tothink big and dreambigger. And that’s whywe have set an ambi-tious fundraising goalfor the campaign.”

“We are almost 60percent of the wayto our goal of $30 mil-lion. Let’s take a mo-ment to think aboutthe significance of this.In just 31/2 years, $17.7million has beenraised, all of which ishelping our LawSchool advance on allfronts. We’ve raisedmore, in half the time,than in the whole ofour last campaign,which ended a decadeago. And with threemore years to go inthis campaign, we areall confident we willreach our $30 milliongoal.”

“Our time is now –to make the differ-ence for the law schoolthat made the differ-ence for us. We havethe momentum, wehave a compelling vi-sion, we have greatleadership at the LawSchool and the Uni-versity, and we have aplan and goals that wecan achieve. All the el-ements are in place.We hope that each ofyou will join us in thisgreat endeavor to takeour law school to thenext level. For, if notnow, when? And if notyou, who?”

For more information about the Campaign for SUNY Buffalo Law visit: www.law.buffalo.edu/campaign.

ThomasE.BlackJr.’79Black Mann & Graham

Flower Mound, Texas

Kenneth B. Forrest ’76Wachtell Lipton Rosen & KatzNew York City

Margaret W. Wong ’76Margaret W. Wong &Associates Co. LPA

Cleveland

Francis M. Letro ’79Law Office of Francis M. Letro

Buffalo

“ We hope that each of you will join us in this greatendeavor to take our law school to the next level.For, if not now, when? And if not you, who?”

— Francis M. Letro ’79


4 Law School Report: Campaign Kickoff

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Kicking off our campaign

with a BANG!

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Photos by Rob McElroy



1.Law School’scampaign kicksoff with a bang!2. Francis M.Letro ’79 andVice Dean IleneR. Fleischmann3.Trini E. Ross

’92, Dean MakauW. Mutua and Laurie StykaBloom ’834.Campaign Co-ChairsKenneth B. Forrest ’76, MargaretW. Wong ’76, Francis M. Letro’79 and Thomas E. Black Jr. ’795.Pamela D. Heilman ’75 andBarbara Morgan6.Thomas E. Black Jr. ’797. (clockwise) Brian M. Melber’96, Hon. Shirley Troutman, UBPresident Satish Tripathi,Kamlesh Tripathi, Margaret W.Wong ’76 and Christopher J.O’Brien8.Christopher A. Wightman ’99and Associate Dean Karen R.Kaczmarski ’899. 2012-13 GOLD GroupPresident James M. O’Keefe ’07,Patrick A. Little ’15, MatthewTuretsky ’14 and Michael S.Solomon ’1510. Kenneth B. Forrest ’76 andKaren B. Leeds ’7611. Christopher A. Wightman’99 and Mark K. Suzumoto ’8212. Richard E. Gottlieb ’85and Paul J. Korniczky ’8613. Thomas F. Ferris ’96and Vice Dean andProfessor Charles P.Ewing14. Nicole C. Lee ’02,Marc Bayard and ViceDean James R. Newton15. UB President SatishTripathi 16. UB cheerleaders helpstart the party.17. Douglas W. Dimitroff’89 and David J. McNamara18.Professor Errol E.Meidinger and Harvey L.Kaminski ’77

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Four weeks. Twenty students. Ahalf-dozen professors and in-structors. And a whole lot oflearning, growing and discov-

ery.That about sums up the Law

School’s second foray into DiscoverLaw, a program designed to make lawschool more accessible to students ofcolor that gives promising undergrad-uates a real-world sampling of alawyer’s work and the rigors of legaleducation. The students, who came from as

far as Atlanta and Wisconsin and livedon campus during the June experi-ence, took four rigorous coursestaught by SUNY Buffalo Law profes-sors, visited working courts, learnedabout the admissions process andshadowed a judge or attorney for aday. They were paid a small stipend tooffset income lost during the month.In the second year of a three-year

grant from the Law School Admis-sions Council (LSAC), the Discover

Law program is a joint venture of theLaw School, the Minority Bar Associa-tion of Western New York and theLSAC.“Not everyone who comes is com-

pletely sold that law school is right forthem,” says Lillie Wiley-Upshaw, vicedean for admissions and student life,who administers the Discover Lawprogram. “But many of them walkedaway with a firmer commitment to thestudy of law. They found that theywere interested in the topics and howthe professors presented informationto them. We reassured them that this isvery doable – it takes hard work, but ifyou have that drive and commitment,you can do it and there’s a place foryou in law school.”New this year was a resume writing

workshop by specialist April Sanders,who Wiley-Upshaw says “worked withthe students from an intrinsic point ofview. The resume was a reflection ofwho you are, your values.” Another ad-dition to the program: Jodyann Galvin’99, a partner at the Buffalo law firmHodgson Russ, matched the studentswith volunteer mentors from the locallegal community.One highlight, Wiley-Upshaw says,

was a visit to Buffalo’s federal courtbuilding, where students watched aproceeding and talked with U.S. Mag-istrate Judge Hugh B. Scott ’74.Among the Law School faculty,

Professors Charles P. Ewing, Teresa A.Miller and James A. Wooten taughtclasses to the students; legal writing in-structors Johanna Oreskovic ’97 andBernadette Gargano worked closelywith them on research and writingskills; and, in a new twist, Ph.D. stu-dent David Sackris from UB’s Philoso-phy Department helped the studentswith logic skills as part of their LSATpreparation.Tatiana Williams, a social work ma-

jor at Syracuse University, says shefound the relationships she built werean important part of the experience. “Iwasn’t expecting that at first,” Williams

says. “Everyone was competitive andvery driven, and they all had goals theywere passionate about. Coming to-gether with that kind of group reallychanges an individual.” A Rochester native, Williams is

hoping to earn a joint degree in lawand social work. She was just 9 yearsold when her father was incarcerated,and she has been a mentor to youngchildren who have a parent in prison –experience she hopes to build on inher law career.The people in the Discover Law

program, she says, “showed us that weare capable of accomplishing any-thing. They made us aware of some ofthe obstacles that exist, from financesto family situations, but also showedus what we can do to get around them. “I didn’t know what to expect,” she

says. “But this was an excellent oppor-tunity that I appreciated. They were areally supportive staff, and that made ahuge difference.”Her classmate Edward Fultz, a ju-

nior at Morehouse College in Atlanta,says the program “reaffirmed my deci-sion that I want to go to Law School.We visited law firms, courtrooms, wedid legal work, and I loved the wholething. It was work, but work that I hadfun doing.”A trip to Wende Correctional Facil-

ity also left a big impression. “We visit-ed inmates who were serving 25-to-lifesentences,” Fultz says. “You see it onTV, but being there is a whole differentexperience. This man who will bethere the rest of his life and he’s only19. That had a really big impact onme.”He acknowledged that Discover

Law was a lot of work, “but we allknew that coming in,” he says. “Thiswas a rigorous program, a learning ex-perience. But I didn’t see it as work.”Oh, and those accommodations:

much nicer than his undergraduateresidence hall. “It was like a hotel,” hesays.

6 Law School Report

A month of discovery Undergraduates get a rigorous preview of life in law school

During a recentvisit, Gov. AndrewM. Cuomo poseswith students fromthe Law School’sDiscover LawProgram.



Arobust exchange of ideas” isthe guiding principle behindan ambitious series of initia-tives planned by the Buffalo

Criminal Law Center, SUNY BuffaloLaw School’s platform for in-depthstudy of U.S., international and com-parative criminal law. With Professor Luis E. Chiesa, an

internationally recognized scholar ofcriminal law, as its director, the BCLC isplanning academic events, hosting vis-iting scholars and making it possiblefor academics worldwide who work inthis subject area to interact and con-verse.“We want to foster a conversation

between not only Europe and America,abut also between America and LatinAmerica, as well as America and Asia,”Chiesa says. “These are places wheredeveloping countries are hungry forideas regarding how to better their legalsystem in general and their criminaljustice system in particular. They reallywant to exchange ideas and to learnfrom each other.”SUNY Buffalo Law School offers

J.D. students a concentration in crimi-nal law and also has a master of lawsprogram in criminal law. Drawing onthis core strength in criminal law, andbuilding on the center’s early efforts ledby former Professor Markus Dubber,the BCLC is concentrating its effortson three initiatives.The center’s Colloquium Series and

Conferences will bring leading crimi-nal law scholars to Buffalo to presentworks in progress. In the ColloquiumSeries, invitees are physically present atthe Law School and present to LawSchool faculty. In addition, a rotatingroster of 16 criminal law scholarsworldwide will participate by Skype.“This is an incredible opportunity

for scholars to be able to present theirwork to a wide variety of colleagues,”Chiesa says. “We have to think deepand hard about the problems of thecriminal justice system and how tosolve them, flag new issues and come

up with new ways of thinking aboutold issues. Part of the job is to keepourselves up to date regarding what’sout there. Hopefully, hearing aboutwhat others are doing and writingabout will be helpful to our own pro-jects. This is sort of a virtual communi-ty.” The center will also sponsor more

traditional conferences, in which acad-emics gather in person to present anddiscuss around a central topic. A con-ference planned for spring 2014, with atopic yet to be determined, is expectedto produce papers that will be pub-lished as a book or in the Buffalo LawReview. Participants will include schol-ars from Spain, Germany, Latin Ameri-ca and the United States.The BCLC Visiting Researcher Pro-

gram invites international scholarswith an interest in U.S. criminal law tobe in residence at the Law School forone to six months. There they will con-duct research and talk with Law Schoolfaculty and other scholars. Besides theLaw School’s excellent research facili-ties, Chiesa notes, it’s important foracademics from other countries to beable to watch the U.S. justice system inaction and to learn about its nuancesfrom practitioners. Finally, the Comparative Criminal

Law Conversations Project will fostercritical conversation between scholarsin civil law jurisdictions, such as conti-nental Europe and Central and LatinAmerica, and those working in com-mon law traditions such as GreatBritain and the United States. In an un-precedented project, the BCLC isspearheading an effort that will featureEnglish translations of four or fiveseminal German and Spanish works incriminal theory, followed by replieswritten by leading Anglo-Americanscholars. All of these will be translatedinto English, with publication expectedto follow in early 2015. The goal,Chiesa says, is to help scholars bridgethe gap between the civil law and com-mon law traditions.


The idea factoryBuffalo Criminal Law Center puts scholars in touch worldwide

“

For more information visit: http://www.law.buffalo.edu/bclc

Cited as “Best Legal Book” by the Puerto Rico Bar Association2013 marked the publication of the second edition

of Professor Luis Chiesa’s 300-page hornbook onsubstantive criminal law, Derecho Penal Sustantivo(JTS Publishers), written in Spanish for readers in theauthor’s native Puerto Rico. The second edition was made

necessary by changes in thecommonwealth’s legal code. Thefirst edition was cited as “BestLegal Book” by the Puerto RicoBar Association, and it has beencited at least 10 times by thePuerto Rico Supreme Court and25 times by the Puerto RicoCourt of Appeals.


8 Law School Report: Commencement 2013

At Commencement,a call to action

FFNew York State’s chief judge, Hon. Jonathan Lippman, presented the keynote address.

or the rows of new SUNY Buffalo-trained lawyers eager totake on the world, the message at their May 18 Commence-ment ceremonies was simple but not easy: Do well, but don’tforget to do good in the process. The 236 J.D. and nine LL.M. recipients heard that message

in multiple ways, most especially from New York State’s chiefjudge, Hon. Jonathan Lippman, a champion of pro bonoser-vice. And on a day steeped in celebration, they were sent forthwith the reminder that, just as a legal education is open to all,access to the justice system is a primary responsibility of theprofession.“We are living in a vastly changing world where the as-

sumptions of yesteryear are being countermanded by thefacts of today,” Dean Makau W. Mutua said in opening theceremony. “But the timeless values that inspire and bind ourprofession will never change. That is because the human heartis driven by both altruism and self-interest. It is our job to find

the moral middle between these two competing forces, towrite on the pages of time our unequivocal commitment toone simple truth: that each individual human being carriesworth. This simple truth should be your lodestar. Hold onto itand you will never lose your way.” Lippman, who serves as chief judge of the state Court of

Appeals, made news recently when he instituted a require-ment that new law school graduates must complete 50 hoursof pro bono legal work before sitting for the state Bar exam.The requirement takes effect with students graduating in2014.“The purpose of the new rule,” he said in his remarks, “is

to ensure that each new generation of lawyers will embracethe core values of our profession, which first and foremostinclude service to others, particularly to the poor, the indi-gent and people of limited means in these difficult eco-nomic times. This culture of service must become part of

For videos and photos visit: www.law.buffalo.edu/forum/extra


your professional DNA.“I say that in the context of the justice gap in this country.

We at best meet 20 percent of the need for civil legal servicesin our own state. Legal service providers to the poor are turn-ing away far more people than they are able to take in asclients. We need an army of lawyers dedicated to the public in-terest to eliminate, or at least reduce, this justice gap.” Noting that “last year more than 2.3 million people were

unrepresented in civil cases in our courts,” Lippman said,“Our courts are the emergency rooms for the ills of society,and today our courtrooms are standing room only, filled withvulnerable and frightened unrepresented litigants.” He sug-gested that the graduates could help meet that need either byentering a public service role in representing indigent defen-dants full time, or by providing pro bono legal representationas part of their other work. “We all must earn a living,” the judge acknowledged. “But

we cannot define our existence bythe billable hour or paychecksalone. Our profession should notbe perceived as argumentative,narrow or avaricious, but ratheras one that is defined by the pur-suit of justice and the desire to beof service. Justice has no realmeaning without lawyers to giveit life.” Graduating senior Adam

Hayes, delivering the student ad-dress, noted, “We’ve learned a lotabout what it takes to be a goodlawyer, advocate and representa-tive. But we have so much moreto learn. Today we begin the nextstage in our continued lifelongprocess of learning. We must be-gin to evaluate ourselves and sup-press our hubris so we don’t re-place doors with walls.“Today we must place those past successes and titles on a

shelf and strive for new ones by simply doing good work forothers. Certain labels of privilege will tempt us. Our societyoften calls lawyers elite, intelligent, special. But such labels arenot taken, they are earned through the development of one’sintegrity and character. Only when we use our talent and skillsto help others achieve, understand or get back what they’velost, only then can we call ourselves elite, intelligent or special.”Hon. John T. Curtin ’49, senior U.S. district judge for the

Western District of New York, received the Dean’s Medal inrecognition of his longtime commitment to justice and the

rule of law. Curtin, referencing “thathappy few, that band of brothersthat attempt to bring justice in large

and small cases,” said, “I hope and I trust that you recent grad-uates will do your best to provide representation to all.”The Ken Joyce Excellence in Teaching Award went to He-

len A. Drew ’88, a longtime adjunct instructor at the LawSchool whose courses in sports law are highly popular. Votedby the graduating class, the Faculty Award was given to legalanalysis, research and writing instructor Patrick J. Long ’00,and the Staff Award was presented to Amy Atkinson, the LawSchool’s director of special events.


Far left, Professor Susan V.Mangold and LAWR ProgramCoordinator Patrick J. Longhood Katelyn M. Carpenter.

Left, Adam L. Hayesgave the studentaddress.

Left to right: New York State’s chief judge, Hon. JonathanLippman, Hon. John T. Curtin ’49, senior U.S. district judge forthe Western District of New York, Hon. Erin M. Peradotto ’84,Appellate Division, Fourth Department, and Hon. Thomas P.Franczyk, Erie County Court.

Uijoo, Liam and Craig W. Anderson with classmate Chi-Yeon Kim. Nicole K. Intschert and Paul T. Iya Michelle A. Baksh and friend


10 Law School Report: Class of 2016

Three years from now, theywill march across the stage atUB’s Center for the Arts asnew graduates of SUNY Buf-

falo Law School. So it was only fittingthat the members of the Class of 2016would begin their journey in thatsame venue, kicking off a weeklongcalendar of orientation events.Blue-shirted “student ambas-

sadors” greeted the incoming studentsas they arrived on Aug. 23. What fol-lowed was a whirlwind of informa-tion, support and fun – along withsome serious reminders that lawyershave a special obligation to high ethi-cal standards and access to justice.“We wanted to make this a signa-

ture event to designate a transition intheir life,” says Lillie Wiley-Upshaw,vice dean for admissions and studentlife, who led the committee that orga-nized orientation week. “They’ll be-come different people, and we wantedto recognize this from the first day oforientation.”Along with greetings from Dean

Makau W. Mutua and other facultyand administrators, the 1Ls heard abrief history of the Law School andwatched a video from the school’s re-cent 125th anniversary celebrations.They also took an oath – a tradition at

many other law schools, but a first atSUNY Buffalo – in which theypromised, among other things, to “befair, honest, courteous and respectfulto all people and commit [them-selves] to service with integrity andwithout prejudice.” An exercise on the next day of ori-

entation reinforced that commitmentto service. Created with the help of theUnited Way of Buffalo and ErieCounty, the Community ActionPoverty Simulation had students role-play different situations faced by peo-ple living close to the poverty line. Thegoal was to drive home the reality thatpoor people face a frustrating maze ofchallenges in the everyday struggle tosurvive, and that lawyers can changethose lives for the better.

Students were assigned to a “family” and given a description oftheir circumstances. For example, onemight play the role of a 45-year-oldmale head of household with threechildren and a disabled wife, unem-ployed and needing job training. Hisfellow students would fill the otherroles in the family. A set of props –play money, pretend Social Securitycards and the like – added verisimili-tude. The challenge was to deal withdifferent government agencies (runby staff members and current stu-dents) to accomplish tasks like apply-ing for public assistance.

THE LONG HELLOA week of events orients new studentsto law school life



As the orientation studentslearned, it’s not an easy life.They found themselves fill-ing out applications, stuck in

waiting rooms, short of money forgasoline or bus fare. In some cases,robbers stole their Social Security cardand they had to start over. Play-actedunsavory characters added to thesense of realism. “We tried to simulate, as much as

possible, the same sorts of circum-stances that people who live on theline would experience,” Wiley-Upshaw says.

After the role play was over, shesays, staff members debriefed the ex-perience with the students. It wasn’tnews to all of them: “Some said,‘That’s not too far off from my life. It’swhat I’ve had to live with and dealwith,’ ” Wiley-Upshaw says. For all the students, though, the

take-away message was one of profes-sional responsibility. “Lawyers are re-ally advocates, and they’re essential inour society because they are there tohelp people in need,” Wiley-Upshawsays. “This was a good way for them tostart conceptualizing themselves inthe role of lawyers in our society. Nomatter how you use your law degree,understanding and listening to peo-ple’s stories is an important part of

their skill set.”The simulation was followed by a

tour of Carolyn’s House, in NiagaraFalls, a supportive housing programfor homeless women and childrenthat also offers education, counseling,advocacy and support services to itsclients. The facility was created withsignificant help from the Law School’s


The Class of 2016, by the numbersSome fast facts about the new 1L class:

25 Average age

20 Youngest

56 Oldest

26 Percent who are 25 and older

50 Percent who are women

50 Percent who are men

21 Percent who are racial or ethnic minorities

8 Percent with advanced degrees

3.48 Median GPA

154 Median LSAT score

199 Enrolled first-years

1,146 Number of applications

Continued on

Lillie Wiley-UpshawVice dean foradmissions andstudent life

For more on the Class of 2016 visit: www.law.buffalo.edu/admissions/class-profile.html


12 Law School Report: Class of 2016

Two new students come toO’Brian Hall this fall with aparticularly impressive cre-dential: They are Fulbright

scholars, midcareer legal professionalswho will pursue master of laws de-grees at SUNY Buffalo Law with thesupport of this prestigious interna-tional fellowship.The Fulbright Foreign Student

Program, funded by Congressthrough the State Department, sup-ports student grants for non-U.S. na-tionals to study in master’s and Ph.D.programs in the United States. Ac-cording to Joseph E. Schneider ’02, theLaw School’s director of post-profes-sional and international education, 72Fulbright scholars are at UB for the2013-14 academic year.“Having students of this caliber re-

ally elevates the level of classroom dis-cussion,” Schneider says. “It sets thebar pretty high.”The two are among 10 total master

of laws students admitted this year,

plus an exchange student fromBarcelona, Spain. The Fulbrightscholars are:Ali Mosfer of Frankfurt, Germany.

Mosfer is a doctoral candidate, study-ing criminal and constitutional law is-sues, at Goethe University in Frank-furt. His particular interest is in crimi-nal law related to economic offenses,and he is enrolled in the Criminal LawLL.M. program.Shiyamaladevi Manokaran of

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Manokarangraduated second in her class fromthe University of Malaya, the nation’soldest public university, and has prac-ticed litigation with the KualaLumpur firm Shook Lin & Bok. Anavid sports fan, she is fluent in threelanguages: English, Malay and Tamil.She is enrolled in the General LL.M.program.

Two LL.M. students arrive with prestigious

fellowships

Race winners: Charlie Anderson of Grand Island and lawstudent Aimee Hopkins ’16.

First annual 3.5-milerun/walk in Delaware

Park to benefit the Law School’s clinical program



Poverty simulationhad students role-playdifferent situationsfaced by people livingclose to the poverty line

Fulbright ScholarsAli Mosfer ofFrankfurt,Germany, left, andShiyamaladeviManokaran ofKuala Lumpur,Malaysia. Affordable Housing Clinic.

Also part of orientation week for theClass of 2016: small-group and panel dis-cussions with faculty and alumni on whatto expect in Law School; visits to down-town courts; a Student Bar Associationbarbecue and a chartered bus to the Elm-wood Festival of the Arts; an alumni re-ception featuring a “Buffalo ThanksgivingFeast”; and a 3.5-mile run/walk inDelaware Park that raised $500 to benefitthe Law School’s clinical program. Over100 people completed the two laps of thepark’s scenic Ring Road.

THE LONG HELLO(Continued from Page 11)


14 Law School Report

A force for goodStudents reflect on their summer work in the public interest

Continuing SUNY Buffalo LawSchool’s long tradition of sup-port for students exploringpublic-interest work, two

dozen spent the summer in not-for-profit agencies, courts, and prosecutors’and public defenders’ offices, funded byfellowships that made it all possible. Under the umbrella of the student-

run Buffalo Public Interest Law Pro-gram (BPILP), 21 students receivedfunding for their summer work. Threeothers received support through thenational Equal Justice Works SummerCorps Award program.Last spring’s 18th annual BPILP

Auction of goods and services generat-ed nearly $40,000 toward these fellow-ships, which enable students to workwithout pay in public-service positions.Catching up with a few of these tal-

ented students, we found a wealth oflearning and a renewed commitmentto using their developing legal skills tohelp real people in need.

Jasmine Liverpool ’14 worked in theDomestic Violence Unit of the KingsCounty District Attorney’s Office in hernative Brooklyn.“My most important thing is doing

trial advocacy,” Liverpool says. “I knewthe DA’s office waswhere I needed togo. And I knew Iwanted to be backhome in Brooklyn,so it was very im-portant for me tobe able to comedown and net-work.”Working under a

practice order, Liver-pool represented the DA’s office in courtproceedings on domestic violence cas-es, such as motions to dismiss a case orrefer an offender to a drug abuse oranger management program. “I was never just twiddling my

thumbs or sitting at a desk all day,” shesays. “I was always moving, doing

hands-on work. If I wasn’t in court, Iwas doing intakes, interviewing womenwho came into the office. Besides thecops, I would be the first person theywould talk to. We had to figure outwhat happened and whether to prose-cute.”The work can be emotional, she ac-

knowledges, but “I learned not to inter-nalize any of these things. I saw so manyof these cases come in, one worse thanthe next. You just have to get to the bot-tom line and figure out whether we canprosecute or not. Over 90 percent of thetime, these things plead out.” Liverpool’s work was subsidized by

the inaugural Suzanne E. TomkinsWomen, Children and Social JusticeAdvocacy Fellowship. “I was exception-ally grateful for the fellowship,” she says.

Matthew Fanciullo ’15 calls his in-ternship with Hon. Lawrence E. Kahn,of the U.S. District Court for the North-ern District of New York, in Albany, “re-ally incredible.” Along with one otherfull-time student intern and two part-timers, he spent the summer research-ing and writing on legal issues facing

the court. He even had one piece pub-lished in the New York Law Journal. “All day, every day, I could work on

my writing,” Fanciullo says. “All theclerks here are from Ivy League schools,they were on Law Review, they’re bril-liant guys, and any time I needed aquestion answered about anything,they gave me the time. It’s a very colle-gial atmosphere. Judge Kahn is reallybrilliant, and he’s hilarious, too. Evensome of the other judges would some-times invite us to their proceedings anddiscuss with us why they ruled a certainway, what was in their mind, what theysaid to the attorneys to try to get themto settle.” The BPILP fellowship he received,

Fanciullo says, made the internshiphappen. “I don’t know if this wouldhave been a possibility without thefunding from my fellowship,” he says. “Isuppose I could have worked less andgotten less out of it and had another jobas well. But if I had to leave earlier everyday, it wouldn’t have been as helpful. SoBPILP was huge in this. I really appreci-ate that there’s an organization likethat.”

Matthew Fanciullo ’15

Jasmine Liverpool ’14



An Equal Justice Works tuitiongrant made possible the summer in-ternship of Amanda Sullivan ’14,whoworked with Mid-Missouri Legal Ser-vices Corp. in Columbia, Mo. Sullivan,who is in the joint JD/MSW program,expects to live in Missouri after gradua-tion and wanted to become familiar

with Missouri lawthis summer. Her agency

serves low-incomeclients either bring-ing or defendingthemselves againstcivil actions. Underwhat in Missouri iscalled Rule 13, she

was certified to prac-tice in court under at-

torney supervision. “This was my firstexperience in court,” she says. “But a lotof the judges are so helpful. They’ll see aRule 13 student and come down andintroduce themselves.”Her cases involved mostly issues in

family law: housing issues, orders ofprotection, Medicaid claims. Many

were ex parte situations in which aclient was seeking child visitation, childsupport or safety measures such as therelinquishment of firearms by an of-fender. Sullivan used her interviewing skills

from social work school in workingwith these clients, but says she reallylearned the ropes from her supervisingattorney, Michael Carney. “Relation-ships are dynamic; they are fluidthings,” she says. “A woman might befearful for her life one day, but not thenext. It’s really important to set bound-aries and understand that people aregoing to make their own choice. You’renot there to counsel or empower, you’rejust there to make sure they are gettingtheir point across before the judge.”

Ann Dillon ’15 was one of two Ka-plan & Reynolds Fellows, an alumni-funded fellowship. Her summer intern-ship was spent in Chicago at Access Liv-ing, a not-for-profit that promotes in-dependent living for people with dis-abilities. She got interested in special ed-ucation law, she says, when before lawschool she taught on Chicago’s SouthSide, “working with a lot of kids whocame from families that didn’t knowtheir legal rights. You just see a lot offamilies who need legal representationand they might not even know it.”Working in the legal department at

Access Living, she helped represent in-dividuals with disabilities in cases alleg-ing discrimination in housing or otherpublic accommodations. The goal, shesays, is to get people into the least re-strictive living environment that meetstheir needs, so they can lead indepen-dent, self-fulfilling lives. The clients in-cluded people with developmental dis-abilities such as Down’s syndrome orcerebral palsy, all sorts of physical dis-abilities, and afflictions such as crip-pling anxiety or depression.With only four attorneys on staff, “I

got to do a little bit of everything,” shesays – a lot of research, writing an ap-pellate brief, attending hearings forclass-action lawsuits, doing intake in-terviews with potential clients, evenwriting newsletters.“There’s a different sense of ur-

gency when you’re working for a realclient,” she says. “I had always thoughtof going into education law; I hadnever really considered disability law.But you see how many different socialissues there are that really need

lawyers advocating to further thecause.”

Amanda Ruth Webber ’15, too, re-turned to familiar ground this summer:her native Adirondack Mountains,where she arranged a legal internship inRay Brook, N.Y., with Region 5 of thestate Department of EnvironmentalConservation (where the supervisingattorney is Michelle Crew ’94).Mostly, Webber says, the work in-

volved administrativelaw, such as the per-mitting process fordams or docks, andthe web of regulationsthat govern petrole-um storage for cars,boats and airplanes.Her office also moni-tors how towns andvillages contain andtreat wastewater runoff. “A lot of it is very technical,” she says,

“and there were a lot of technical termsI wasn’t familiar with. I spent four orfive days in the field throughout thesummer, with the engineers explainingto me how things work.” She also witnessed firsthand how

the good intentions of the law some-times butt up against hard fiscal reali-ties, when she sat in on a meeting with asmall municipality whose wastewatertreatment plant was out of compliance.The municipality couldn’t afford to fixthe problem. “Our Office of General Counsel sat

down with officials of this municipalityand said, ‘This is what’s wrong, whatneeds to be fixed, what the regulationsare. You’re supposed to go about it thisway,’ ” she says. “It was a sharp realiza-tion for me that the law doesn’t live inisolation – there are real-life implica-tions. Slapping a huge penalty wasn’tgoing to solve the problem here, but atthe same time you can’t eliminate allpenalties. “The main thing I learned was that

it’s our job to act in the public interest. Igot to see how what we did actually hadan impact.”

Ann Dillon ’15

Amanda Sullivan ’14

Amanda Ruth Webber ’15



Anew Law School practicum isputting students’ legal skills touse on behalf of an under-served group of clients: federal

offenders who are completing theirsentences and finding their way in lifeafter prison.The Post-Incarceration Reentry

Practicum is a collaboration betweenthe Law School and the Western Dis-trict of New York’s Federal ReentryCourt Program, a voluntary post-re-lease program that provides newly re-leased federal offenders with a range ofsupport, including legal assistance, tohelp them stay out of trouble and getsettled in jobs and housing. Startingwith six students this fall semester andcontinuing in the spring, participants inthe practicum are working with attor-neys from the Legal Aid Bureau of Buf-falo to help resolve civil legal issues forthese newly released offenders. The instructors for the program are

Monica Piga Wallace ’94,a Law Schoollecturer in the Legal Analysis, Writingand Research program, and Legal Aidattorney Paul Curtin.Professor AthenaMutuawill also participate in thepracticum. Nationwide, over

150 prisoners each dayare released from feder-al custody, Wallace says,and they face both legaland social barriers tosuccessful reentry intosociety. The transitionfrom life in prison to lifeat home poses manychallenges for those in-dividuals. As convictedfelons, they may havedifficulty finding ade-quate housing; theymay be barred fromcertain types of em-ployment; they mayhave issues with substance abuse, men-tal health, and child support or childcustody arrangements. “These barriersinterfere with their ability to transition

back into the community,” Wallace says.“Even individuals with the best of in-tentions will encounter legal and socialobstacles that threaten to interfere with

reintegration and in-crease the likelihood ofrecidivism. Reentry workseeks to identify andeliminate those barriersand create situationswhere newly released in-dividuals can successfullyrejoin society.“This is an opportu-

nity to give students realpractical experiencewhile fulfilling this un-met legal need. Experien-tial learning has beenidentified as essential todeveloping the legal skillsneeded to address the de-

mands and challenges of practicing law.It’s a great marriage of the Law School’sdesire to facilitate experiential learningand the school’s commitment to pro-

viding pro bono legal services.”In addition to their classroom-based

coursework, those in the practicum –all second- and third-year students –spend about 10 hours a week workingunder the supervision of Legal Aid at-torneys representing participants in theFederal Reentry Court Program. Forexample, Wallace says, they might workto obtain a waiver for an offender whowants to reunite with his family livingin federally subsidized housing, but isbarred from doing so because of rulesagainst felons’ living in subsidizedapartments. Others may help resolveoutstanding arrest warrants or seekmodification of a child custody order.Some will work under practice ordersin federal, state, city and family courts,and students will also participate in thebiweekly Federal Reentry Court ses-sions run by U.S. Magistrate JudgeHugh B. Scott ’74.Scott, whose program is one of

about 40 administered by federal dis-trict courts nationwide, says that if of-

Easing the transitionStudents step up for those adjusting to life after prison

Hon. Hugh B. Scott ’74,Magistrate Judge, UnitedStates District Court

Participants in the practicum with instructors Monica Piga Wallace ’94, a Law Schoollecturer in the Legal Analysis, Writing and Research program, second from right, andPaul Curtin, a Legal Aid attorney.


S U N Y B U F F A L O L A W F O R U M • S P R I N G 2 0 1 3 17

They’re called feral cats – entirely un-domesticated – or “communitycats,” friendly felines that troll theneighborhood for food and don’t

live with a family in a home. To some,they’re a nuisance; to others, they’re a vitalpart of the urbanecosystem. Andthere are a lot ofthem: By some esti-mates, 40,000 to90,000 unownedcats roam thestreets of Buffalo.The problem is,

the city has no well-thought-out planfor dealing withthese cats. Citizencomplaints led thecity’s CommonCouncil to form atask force to ad-dress the issue. Onemember of that task force, Peter A. Reese’73, approached the Law School seeking le-gal help for the project.The result was the development of the

SUNY Buffalo Animal Law Pro Bono Pro-ject, with students working over the sum-mer and continuing this fall researching theissue and putting together a draft model or-dinance for lawmakers to consider.“The students looked at what the science

shows us happens in communities withfree-roaming cats, the experience that otherlocalities and national experts have had withordinances, and how Buffalo works,” saysProfessor Kim Diana Connolly, vice deanfor legal skills and director of clinical legaleducation, who oversees the project. In ad-dition, she says, students searched nation-wide for municipal laws dealing with feraland community cats. They found that nouniform standard exists for laws in this area,and, Connolly says, they hope to submit thedraft ordinance to a national database to beshared widely.Reese, a longtime advocate for animal

welfare, says there are three possible avenuesfor dealing with unowned cats. The first is totry to catch and euthanize them. But, hesays, “we’ve been trying that approach for at

least 150 years, and it just doesn’t work.”Cats, he points out, are prolific breeders. Themiddle ground is to do nothing, and he sayssome studies have shown it’s the best course,recognizing that if all the wild cats were todisappear from a city, rats and other vermin

would proliferate. What Reese calls the most

progressive approach is labeledTNVR – trap, neuter, vaccinateand release. “It requires some re-sources,” he says, “but we wouldlike the Common Council to atleast recognize the concept ofTNVR. If they’re willing to sup-port it, that’s good. We hope toshed some light on this and givethe Common Council some op-tions.” He says the task force willreach consensus on a recom-mendation and present it to theCouncil; public hearings wouldfollow.Of the law students’ involve-

ment, he says, “I think it’s a fantastic oppor-tunity for the students to do pro bono workand for the community to utilize their re-sources, to come up with solutions for prob-lems like this.”Student Ian Laing is writing the draft or-

dinance for the city task force. “Through thisproject, I have been able to read and analyzeordinances that have been passed in otherjurisdictions,” he says. “Being able to readand decipher what some of the other ordi-nances mean and say is a major benefit.”Connolly says, “It is a win-win when stu-

dents can get experience while delivering aproject that is needed in real-time for an ac-tual project.”The rising second- and third-year stu-

dents did the work to help satisfy New YorkState’s new 50-hour pro bono requirementfor Bar admission. The Law School wants tooffer other such service experiences in manysubject areas, in which professors or alumni“can get a group of students who can domeaningful work that will support neces-sary change in a limited time.” Interestedparties can reach her at (716) 645-2092 or [email protected].

Kitty, kitty, kitty …What to do with 90,000 wild cats? Pro bono project seeks an answer

fenders succeed with the reentry pro-gram, their period of supervised releasecan be reduced by a year. “It’s reallyabout putting your life back together,”he says. “These are people at the highestrisk of reoffending. But it costs a fortuneto re-imprison someone. This is an at-tempt to do for these individuals asmuch as we can do as a court.”

Participants in the programgather every two weeks in JudgeScott’s well-appointed GeneseeCourtroom, on the sixth floor

of Buffalo’s new federal court building,to report on their progress: Have theyfound a job? Are they living in a stablesituation? Are they avoiding drugs andalcohol? “We try to make it a lot less for-mal than a regular court proceeding,and we try to involve their families asmuch as we can,” Scott says.Reentry programs seek to avoid the

future social and legal costs that occur ifan individual reoffends. The offenders’participation is voluntary, he says, and14 to 18 are in the program at any giventime. “I really hope this program ex-pands in the future,” Scott says. “It’s theright thing to do, it’s a good use of re-sources, it saves resources, and it savespeople from a lot of collateral conse-quences.” Legal Aid attorney Curtin says the

practicum is “a really good fit for stu-dents who want to have a serious expe-rience doing actual legal work in thecivil field. It’s the kind of client represen-tation that is all-encompassing. I’m an-ticipating the participants will get someexperience in housing law, landlord-tenant law, issues with the city HousingCourt, civil legal issues related to finan-cial problems, and a broad range offamily law issues. The clients we dealwith take us into pretty much everycourt in the city. But with these folks,you can really make a profound differ-ence in a short period of time.”


Three SUNY Buffalo Law stu-dents made good use of theirpassports this summer, as theyflew off to work at legal intern-

ships in Europe and Central and SouthAmerica. The internships, arranged through

the International Law Section of theNew York State Bar Association, were co-ordinated by Hodgson Russ attorneysLauren D. Rachlin and Benjamin R.Dwyer ’96. This is the second year for theprogram, which places students world-wide where the Bar Association has localchapters; last year’s interns worked inGuatemala, Prague and Vienna.“I wanted to go outside New York

State and get a non-traditional experi-ence,” says Jessica Carbone ’15,whospent three weeks at a law firm in Berg-amo, Italy, just northeast of Milan. Shealso is of Italian heritage and heard Ital-ian spoken at home – but, she says, therapid-fire Italian was a challenge.The firm, Studio Legale Amorese, is

small – only four people, two of themwho spoke good English. The principalattorney, Marco Amorese, is a generalist,practicing litigation, corporate law andcriminal defense.

“He gets clients who wantto do business with New Yorklaw,” Carbone says. “For exam-ple, one client had started abusiness that would sell in theUnited States, and he was try-ing to decide if he shouldchoose U.S. or Italian law,wanted to know the benefitsand risks of each one.” Theparties to contracts, she ex-plains, have to agree on whichbody of law applies to the deal.In Bergamo, Carbone says,

“the bar exam you have to takethere is the most difficult in

Italy, and the lawyers there are the best inItaly.“It’s fairly new for women to be

lawyers there,” she says. “I learned Iwould not want to be a lawyer anywherebut the U.S.” But she also appreciatedlearning about the customs that attachto jurisprudence in Italy: the extrava-gant robes that attorneys wear to court,the cage-like structure in which defen-dants are held in the courtroom, trialsthat can go on for more than a decade. In the four weeks Matt Turetsky ’14

spent at an internship in GuatemalaCity, Guatemala, at a law firm calledPacheco Coto, he found himself im-mersed in the culture and the language.He had had only a semester of Spanishin college, but “by the end I could piecetogether a conversation.”At the firm, he worked on contracts

and other legal documents, addressingtrademark and franchising issues. Healso wrote an article that comparedfranchising laws in Guatemala and theUnited States. “Guatemala has everyfranchise you can imagine,” Turetskysays. In rotating through the firm’s differ-

ent practice groups, Turetsky found that

corporate contracts typically are basedon New York law. “New York is the hubfor international business,” he says. “Alot of things were in English.”He also sat in on a meeting of the

Latin American Council, a new groupbacked by the NYSBA that brought to-gether attorneys from North and SouthAmerica to address corruption in gov-ernment. That meeting was in Antigua.Lizeth Castillo ’14made the leap to

the Central American nation of Pana-ma, where she did corporate work witha small but influential Panama Cityfirm, Quijano & Associates. During her five-week internship,

Castillo says, she worked in sections ofthe firm dealing with incorporatingcompanies, registering ships and immi-gration issues. She found the experiencepaperwork-intensive dealing with thePanama’s maritime authority, but thecorporate work was “very interesting.” “The firm is micromanaging every-

thing about these client corporations,”she says. For instance, the law firmmight put its own attorneys on a com-pany’s board of directors, to expedite thepaperwork.Most valuable to her, she says, was

“being submerged in corporate law thatI hadn’t had any experience in before. Ireally enjoyed it.” As for the language, Castillo is of

Mexican heritage and Spanish is her firstlanguage. “In Panama their Spanish isvery fast, almost all slang all the time. Itwas interesting to get there and feel Icouldn’t actually speak the language.”Professor Errol E. Meidinger was the

Law School’s faculty liaison for the in-ternships, and Lisa M. Patterson, associ-ate dean for career services, coordinatedthe student application process.

18 Law School Report: International Internships

Jessica Carbone ’15 Matt Turetsky ’14 Lizeth Castillo ’14

Adventurous internships

For some students, the summer commute

included a long plane trip


In the office where heserved his summerlegal internship,Ethan Notarius ’15

heard several languagesbeing spoken every day.Besides three U.S. col-leagues, there were up to adozen other legal interns,from Australia, Bosnia,Bulgaria, China, Colom-bia, Great Britain, Italy,Iceland, Lithuania, Ro-mania and Serbia. Thetrial he was working onwas conducted in Eng-lish, French and Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian. Andthe trial team is dealingwith more than 2 millionpages of documents.Such is life at the In-

ternational Criminal Tri-bunal for the former Yu-goslavia (ICTY), whereformer Bosnian Serb Re-public President RadovanKaradzic is accused ofwar crimes allegedly committed duringthe Bosnian War. His trial in TheHague, Netherlands, before a TrialChamber of three judges, began in2009 and is expected to finish in 2014.Karadzic is defending himself, but hehas a legal adviser and team to provideadvice, do legal research, draft legal doc-uments and handle procedural matters.Notarius, who spent the summer as

an intern working on the case, says thelength of the trial is no surprise, giventhe amount of information at issue andthe breadth and seriousness of the al-leged crimes, which cover a period ofabout five years. “Terms like ‘genocide’and ‘crimes against humanity’ refer toheinous crimes, and they can’t be han-dled lightly. Both the prosecution anddefense recognize this and the futureimpact of the trial’s outcome, and Ithink they handle the case accordingly,”he says. Karadzic, he says, “has been highly

vilified, rightfully so or not, by much ofthe international community. I don’tknow whether he expected a particularoutcome in deciding to self-represent.Yet I think he wanted to convey his per-spective and establish a more completerecord, not for his case alone but for theworld – to show there is another side tothe story, that things may not be exactlyas they’ve been portrayed by the media.With so many facts and events at issue,self-representation was probably hisbest option.”

Notarius’ job involved work-ing with the voluminousdocument record, searching,organizing and analyzing

documents that had been digitized andstored on computer – looking, for ex-ample, for documents that might beused during a witness’ cross-examina-tion. He also compiled witness sum-

maries and did legal re-search and writing, in-cluding researching in-ternational treaties,covenants and humanrights cases; drafting legalmemoranda; and con-tributing to a motion. The highlight, Notar-

ius says, was “taking theskills I learned in my firstyear of law school, the legal writing, and theprinciples of law and jus-tice I learned in my doc-trinal classes, and apply-ing them to an interna-tional context. Many ofthe first-year skills andfundamentals are univer-sal in character, and itwas interesting to seehow they take shape inan ad hoc tribunal thatapplies a mix of civil andcommon law.” For exam-ple, he says, the ICTY af-fords defendants many

rights similar to those guaranteed in theU.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights, butnot the Sixth Amendment right to ajury trial for certain cases. ICTY casesare heard by a three-judge trial cham-ber and allow the use of hearsay evi-dence.Notarius says he felt privileged to

have spent his summer alongside tal-ented and dedicated attorneys, law stu-dents and staff. He hopes the ICTY, asthe first war crimes tribunal sinceNuremberg, will remind future genera-tions that there are certain acts humani-ty will not tolerate.


A lesson in justice Ethan Notarius ’15 had a role in the first war crimes tribunal since Nuremberg

“The highlight was taking the skills I learned inmy first year of law school, the legal writing, andthe principles of law and justice I learned in my doctrinal classes, and applying them

to an international context.”


The cavernous basement ofJohn Lord O’Brian Hall – asVice Dean for AdministrationJames R. Newton puts it, once

a place “where furniture went to die” –underwent an extreme makeover thissummer. The renovation, which creat-ed two new attractive and technology-enabled classrooms, is the latest chapterin a five-year project that has dramati-cally improved the Law School’s home.Students take most of their classes

either in the basement or on the firstfloor, Newton says, and research had in-dicated that many students felt the am-bience left something to be desired. “Toremain competitive, we thought it wasimportant to have a building that is at-tractive and had the technology thatstudents are accustomed to and will usein practice,” Newton says. On the heelsof last year’s major renovation of thefirst floor, the new Classrooms 10 and12 downstairs are meeting that stan-dard.Much of the work was structural,

with the installation of new walls, ceil-ings, flooring and lighting, as well asaesthetic, with hanging artwork. Sevensecurity cameras also were installed.But for effective teaching and learn-

ing, perhaps most significant is the in-stallation of audiovisual technology inboth classrooms, bringing them up tothe standards of the first-floor O’Brianlecture halls. This includes documentcameras, projection screens, video andDVD capability, and a wall mountedcamera with room microphones forSkype and similar communications.With the additional tech upgrade to

one of the fourth-floor classrooms,

Newton says, seven of the 11 LawSchool’s primary classrooms are nowfully technology-enabled. The most re-cent installations have been funded by agenerous gift from Harvey L. Kaminski’77, a member of the Dean’s AdvisoryCouncil, for whom a first-floor class-room was named in recognition of pre-vious major gift. Kaminski’s most re-cent gift, totaling $200,000, includes$100,000 designated for educationaltechnology upgrades.Overall, the Law School’s renova-

tions to O’Brian Hall – the first buildingconstructed on the University at Buffa-lo’s North Campus – have totaled about$2.5 million since 2009. The Universityhas paid over half that cost; the LawSchool’s share has come from fundrais-ing, the annual operating budget andtuition income.Also this spring, restrooms on the

fifth and seventh floors were renovatedto fully comply with the Americanswith Disabilities Act.


Lookinggood!Summer basementrenovations createtwo new tech-enabled classrooms



What draws great stu-dents and star legalscholars to studyand teach at SUNY

Buffalo Law School? Many say it’sa culture of openness to newideas and the insights of profes-sors who bring diverse academicdisciplines to the study of law.Now the Law School is more fullyclaiming its status as an idealplace to study international andcomparative legal systems – andthe New York law that undergirdsso much international legal work.Nowhere is this renewed em-

phasis on international law moreapparent than in the Law School’sfall course offerings. Long-estab-lished professors and rising schol-ars are challenging their studentsto look beyond national bordersand discover the richness of glob-al law, and in the process develop prac-tice-ready skills.A sampling of what’s filling the

classrooms in O’Brian Hall this semes-ter includes:Comparative Criminal Law (Profes-

sor Luis E. Chiesa) — A focus on the el-ements of criminal conduct, criminalresponsibility, justification and excuse,criminal combinations, and the appli-cation of general principles to specificcrimes from a transnational perspec-tive. This comparative perspective isused as a tool for helping students un-derstand the strengths and weaknessesof American criminal law. International Comparative Labor

Law (Associate Professor Matthew Dim-ick) – An exploration of the importantsimilarities and substantial differencesin the labor and employment laws ofthe United States, Canada, Mexico, theUnited Kingdom, Germany, France,China, Japan and India – all majorplayers in the global economy - as wellas how international labor institutionsand agreements shape and influencenational labor laws. International Legal Research:

Sources & Strategies (InternationalLaw Librarian Nina Cascio) – An ex-amination of print and electronicsources for international legal researchincluding judicial decisions, docu-ments of intergovernmental organiza-tions and non-governmental organiza-tions, and selected foreign law sources. International Trade Law (Associate

Professor Meredith Kolsky Lewis) – Thetheory and practice of internationaltrade law including relevant U.S. laws,free trade agreements and the WorldTrade Organization regime, with spe-cial attention on the interplay and ten-sion between international trade com-mitments and regulatory autonomy toenact policies domestically. Women’s International Human

Rights (Professor Isabel Marcus) – Thecomplexities of relationships amongcultures, national laws and their imple-mentation, international rights, normsand instruments, and the work of non-governmental organizations interna-tionally are interrogated. Students eval-uate moves to develop state account-ability for violations of women’s hu-man rights.

Immigration and HumanRights Clinic (Associate ProfessorAnjana Malhotra) – Supervisedstudents are engaged in practicallegal thinking and ethical prac-tice through client representa-tion, policy development and ef-fective problem-solving workaddressing civil immigrationand human rights issues. Public International Law

(Associate Professor Tara J. Mel-ish) – An introductory interna-tional law course that exploresthe elementary and foundation-al sources, norms and institu-tions in contemporary interna-tional law, critically examiningthe creation, evolution and en-forcement of international law. International Law Colloqui-

um (Dean Makau W. Mutua) –Part of the International Law

Concentration, students read and dis-cuss recent scholarship on the chang-ing structure and function of the inter-national legal system in the era of glob-alization and democratization. Economic and Social Justice (Pro-

fessor Athena Mutua) – A discussion ofimportant social issues within critical,interdisciplinary and globalized frame-works in order to study how law pro-motes and impedes social justice in di-verse communities across the UnitedStates and internationally. International Environmental Law

(Professor Errol E. Meidinger) – Thiscourse is a selective examination of cer-tain areas of international environ-mental law with the goal of enablingstudents to understand the main waysin which transnational environmentalproblems are addressed. Refugee and Asylum Law (Associate

Professor Rick Su) – Focus on the legalregulations that govern the migrationand status of refugees, asylum seekersand other victims of forced migrationin the United States, with special atten-tion to how these regulations intersectwith international law and institutions.

Global law in actionFall courses renew emphasis on international law



By David J. Hill

Speaking before an audience ofthousands at UB’s Alumni Arenaon Aug. 22, President BarackObama announced a plan he

said would “shake up the system” andmake college more affordable for mid-dle-class students.The president spoke about the need

for all students to be able to afford high-er education, which he called “the bestticket to upward mobility” in Americansociety.“We understand that in the face of

greater and greater global competitionin a knowledge-based economy, a greateducation is more important than ever.A higher education is the single best in-vestment you can make in your future,”Obama told the standing-room-onlycrowd.The president’s visit was a highly an-

ticipated event. He is the first sittingU.S. president to speak on campus sinceMillard Fillmore did so in 1853, atwhich time Fillmore was also the uni-versity’s chancellor.In his address to the nation, Obama

said tuition at the average four-yearpublic university has increased by morethan 250 percent in the past threedecades, while the typical family in-come has risen just 16 percent, a dispar-ity that has forced many students andtheir parents to take out loans to fi-nance college.Many families are struggling to pay

back those loans, the president noted,adding that the average student bor-rower owes more than $26,000 aftergraduating.“The bottom line is this: We’ve got a

crisis in terms of college affordabilityand student debt,” Obama said beforeoutlining his plan to counter this trend.“Today I’m proposing major new re-forms that will shake up the current

system, create better incen-tives for colleges to domore with less and deliverbetter value for studentsand their families.”Some of the reforms

Obama is proposing willrequire action from Con-gress, while others can beenacted through the executive branch.Obama’s plan includes:Implementing a new rating system

before the 2015 academic year that re-wards colleges and universities for per-formance. The rating system would al-low students and their families to selectschools that provide the “best value.”Tying financial aid to college perfor-

mance. Under this plan, students whoreceive federal aid would not receive as-sistance for the next semester’s coursesuntil they have completed their currentcoursework.Promoting innovation and compe-

tition among the nation's universitiesby offering students a greater range ofstudy options, including online courses.Easing the burden of student loan

debt by allowing all borrowers to caploan payments at 10 percent of month-ly income.“At a time when a higher education

has never been more important ormore expensive, too many students arefacing a choice that they should neverhave to make: Either they say no to col-

lege and pay the price for not getting adegree –and that’s a price that lasts alifetime –or you do what it takes to goto college, but then you run the risk thatyou won’t be able to pay it off becauseyou’ve got so much debt. Now, that’s achoice we shouldn’t accept,” the presi-dent said.

Obama speaks on campus,making UB historyThe president unveils a bold new plan to make higher education affordable for all

Obama is the first sittingU.S. president to speak oncampus since MillardFillmore.


Two SUNY Buffalo Law Schoolprofessors have brought theirexpertise in criminal law tobear on major cases that may

reach the highest levels of the federal ju-diciary.Associate Professor Anthony

O’Rourke served as counsel to agroup of 13 professors, including hiscolleague Associate Professor Rick Su,who filed an amici curiae brief in anArizona immigration case on appealto the U.S. Court of Appeals, NinthCircuit. SUNY Distinguished Profes-sor Guyora Binder,who also serves asthe Law School’s vice dean for re-search and faculty development,joined with Stanford Law School Pro-fessor Robert Weisberg in submittingan amicus brief in a death penaltycase on appeal to the U.S. SupremeCourt.In the Arizona case, Lopez-Valen-

zuela v. Maricopa County, O’Rourkedrafted and filed a 26-page brief in sup-port of the American Civil LibertiesUnion’s en banc petition. The case chal-lenges an Arizona law that categoricallydenies bail to undocumented immi-grants who are charged with a crime.The law in question, called Proposi-

tion 100, requires judges to deny bail fora range of offenses to any person who“has entered or remained in the coun-try illegally.” The brief argues that thelaw impermissibly curtails defendants’due-process rights, and that a lowercourt erred in ruling that the liberty re-strictions imposed by the law “were notexcessive in relation to the goal of man-aging flight risk.”Proposition 100, the brief argues,

“selectively targets a politically unpopu-lar class of individuals and categoricallydenies them a right provided to otherswho are charged with identical offens-es.” It goes on to say that “while otherstate laws categorically deny bail only incases involving particularly seriouscrimes,” the Arizona law “covers an ex-ceptionally broad range of felonies.”For these reasons, the brief contends,

Proposition 100 constitutes a “histori-cally exceptional” restriction on the lib-erty that is unconstitutional under theFourteenth Amendment’s Due ProcessClause.The other case, Watkins v. Califor-

nia, turns on whether a defendant canbe sentenced to death for committingfelony murder without proof of anyculpable mental state. Professor Binder,author of Felony Murder (StanfordUniversity Press, 2012), co-authoredthe brief that seeks Supreme Court re-view of the case, which was decided bythe California Supreme Court.The case, he says, hinges on

“whether a person can be sentenced todeath for committing a felony murderwithout either the intent to kill or reck-less indifference to human life.” The pe-titioner, who claimed he shot the victimby accident while fumbling with aloaded gun, was convicted and sen-tenced to death. A death sentence un-

der California law, the brief notes, doesnot require any culpable mental statewhen the defendant kills in the com-mission of certain felonies. PreviousSupreme Court decisions have estab-lished that accomplices in such felonymurders cannot be sentenced to deathwithout proof of intent to kill or reck-less indifference to human life. The ap-peal seeks to determine whether thatstandard should apply to actual killers,not just accomplices in the crime.“Not a lot of cases come up where

someone is sentenced to death for whatmay have been an accidental killing,”Binder says, “but this is one case wherethe issue does arise. It’s an issue thatdeath penalty litigators have knownwas out there for a long time, and thehope is that the court will give someclarity as to how these standards shouldbe applied.”


Faculty

Criminal lawTwo professors have roles in high-level federal court cases

SUNY Distinguished ProfessorGuyora Binder

Associate Professor Anthony O’Rourke


24 Faculty

James A. Gardner,Bridget andThomas BlackProfessor. A well-regarded constitu-tional law scholarand former vicedean of the LawSchool, Gardnerjoined the Buffalofaculty in 2001. Healso has been

named a SUNY Distinguished Profes-sor. A prolific scholar, his most recentbook is Election Law in the AmericanPolitical System (Aspen, 2013).Thomas E. Black ’79 and his wife,Bridget, are Western New York nativeswho now live in Texas, where Black ismanaging partner of the highly suc-cessful mortgage servicing firm Black,Mann & Graham. He serves as chair ofthe Law School’s Dean’s AdvisoryCouncil, as a trustee of the Universityat Buffalo Foundation, and as co-chairof the Law School’s campaign steeringcommittee.

Errol E. Meidinger, Margaret W.Wong Professor.Meidinger, whoteaches and con-ducts research inenvironmentallaw, directs theBaldy Center forLaw and SocialPolicy, a research

institute that advances the University’srole in cutting-edge research on lawand legal institutions. His most recentarticle, co-authored with four otherscholars, is “Transnational BusinessGovernance Interactions: Conceptual-izing a Terrain,” published in Regula-tion and Governance (2012). MargaretW. Wong ’76 serves as co-chair of theLaw School’s campaign steering com-mittee and as a long-time member ofthe Dean’s Advisory Council. The suc-cessful immigration law practice shefounded in Cleveland now has officesin six U.S. cities. She is also a publishedauthor and one of the Law School’smost generous alumni.

Athena D. Mutua, Floyd H.and Hilda L.Hurst FacultyScholar. Profes-sor Mutua stud-ies and writes inthe areas of criti-cal race and femi-nist legal theory.Her work in-

cludes the edited collection ProgressiveBlack Masculinities (Routledge, 2006).The late Floyd H. Hurst ’31 was afounding partner of the law firmHurst & Brothman (later Hurst,Brothman & Yusick) in Angola, NY.He and his wife, Hilda L. Hurst, spenttheir later years in Altoona, Fla.

John HenrySchlegel, Floyd H.and Hilda L.Hurst FacultyScholar. Schlegel,a SUNY BuffaloLaw faculty mem-ber since 1973,has primarilystudied legal his-tory and the his-tory of legal edu-

cation. A recent article is “TogetherAgain,” in the Comparative Law Re-view (online 2012). He is part of thefaculty group that offers the financialtransactions concentration, teachingboth acquisition transactions and inthe concentration’s program in fi-nance in New York City.

Six longtime faculty members of SUNY Buffalo Law School have been ele-vated to new academic ranks – reflecting, says Dean Makau W. Mutua,“outstanding scholarship and notable records of teaching and service.”The new designations are made possible by generous gifts from distin-

guished alumni. Several are the result of leadership gifts to the school’s seven-year fundraising campaign. A major goal of the $30 million campaign, which isespecially targeted at the school’s 10,500-plus alumni, is endowed support forfaculty research.“In the last five years alone, we have raised money for four completely new

endowed ranks,” Mutua says. “We expect many more of these gifts – to supportour faculty – before the campaign is over.”The faculty members receiving new academic designations are:

Named scholarsSix faculty members receive new academic designations for scholarship, teaching and service


David A. Westbrook, LouisA. Del Cotto Pro-fessor. Westbrookthinks and writesabout the socialand intellectualconsequences ofcontemporary political economy.His work touches

on numerous disciplines, includinglaw, economics, corporations and finance, sociology, anthropology andcultural studies. He also serves as theLaw School’s director for global strate-gic initiatives. Among his books is De-ploying Ourselves: Islamist Violence andthe Responsible Projection of U.S. Force(Paradigm Publishers, 2010). Thisprofessorship was endowed by a majordonation from Brian Baird ’83 andother former students of the late Pro-fessor Louis A. Del Cotto ’51, whotaught tax at the Law School for morethan 40 years. Baird, who is of counselwith the Buffalo law firm Kavinoky &Cook LLP, serves on the Dean’s Advi-sory Council and on the campaignsteering committee of the Law School,and also is a trustee of the charitableCameron and Jane Baird Foundation.

Robert J. Steinfeld, JosephW. Belluck andLaura L. AswadProfessor of CivilJustice. A scholarof constitutionalhistory and legalhistory, Steinfeldhas a forthcom-ing book titledThe People or the

Courts?: Conflicting Vision of Constitu-tional Order, Customary Constitution-alism and the Emergence of AmericanJudicial Review. Joseph W. Belluck ’94is a founding partner of the New YorkCity law firm Belluck & Fox, andserves on the SUNY Board of Trustees.He and his wife, Laura L. Aswad, live inNew York City and Woodstock, N.Y.


ALaw School librarian whohelps to make learning a mul-timedia experience has beenhonored for her work by UB’s

Professional Staff Senate. Anne Marie Swartz, an in-

structional support technicianin the Charles B. Sears Law Li-brary’s Koren Audiovisual Cen-ter, received the OutstandingService Award at a June 6 lun-cheon. The award recognizes“professional excellence andoutstanding service of noteworthyscope and depth which is beyond thatencompassed by the job description.”The Professional Staff Senate is an

organization that represents 2,500 pro-fessional employees of the University. Swartz, who joined the Law Library

in 2000, has primary responsibility forthe audiovisual equipment – the lap-tops, DVD players, document camerasand projectors – used by professors and

other presenters in the LawSchool, equipment that oftenmust be set up, wired properlyand tested in a 10-minute win-dow between classes. She man-ages a rotating staff of about adozen students and juggles staff,equipment and clients in a fast-paced environment. Swartz has a

master’s degree in library science. Terrence McCormack, associate di-

rector of the Law Library and managerof Law School technology, nominatedSwartz for the award.

LAWR lecturer Patrick Long ’00 honored for teaching skills

Patrick J. Long ’00, who coor-dinates and teaches in theLaw School’s Legal Analysis,Writing and Research

(LAWR) program, has been tappedfor special recognition as a legal writ-ing professor.Students chose Long to receive the

Faculty Award at this year’s Com-mencement ceremonies. The LawSchool now has submitted his namefor recognition at the upcoming An-nual Meeting of the Association ofAmerican Law Schools. At the meet-ing, Jan. 2 to 5 in New York City, Longwill be recognized as one of AALS’“Teachers of the Year.” He will also beacknowledged in the association’sFebruary newsletter.“Pat Long is simply one of the best

research and writing professors in thecountry,” says Dean Makau W. Mutua.“His masterful command of legal argu-ment, and his superior ability to teachlegal skills to lawyers in embryo, is oneof the reasons our LAWR program iswithout doubt a key cornerstone ofSUNY Buffalo Law’s curriculum.

“Pat’s recognition as the best pro-fessor at SUNY Buffalo Law by the2013 graduating class is a fitting nodto an excellent teacher, a mentor anda caring academic. We are honored hewill be so recognized at AALS.”Long, whose undergraduate de-

gree is from Harvard, spent four yearsin the Navy and taught English forfour years at the private NicholsSchool in Buffalo before enrolling atSUNY Buffalo Law School. Aftergraduation, he practiced litigation forfive years with the Buffalo firm Hodg-son Russ, then returned to Nicholsbefore joining the Law School faculty.

Recognizing an audiovisual master at work


John Formichella ’96 had neverbeen outside the United States –indeed, hadn’t traveled much out-side of his native New York State –when, in his first year at SUNY Buf-

falo Law School, the world opened upfor him.Pursuing a longtime interest in Asia,

he inquired about study-abroad pro-grams for law students and stumbledupon one in Thailand. “The next thingI knew,” he says, “that summer I was ona plane to Bangkok to study at the Chu-lalongkorn University Faculty of Law,studying international commercial lawcourses. This was an unprecedented ex-perience for me, and it opened up en-tirely new dimensions not only in termsof cultural differences, but of experi-encing a vibrant and robust economyin its developing stages.”His initial foray into Southeast Asia

has blossomed into a flourishing legalcareer there, most recently as a partnerwith the midsize Bangkok law firm Blu-menthal Richter & Sumet. There hepractices corporate and commerciallaw, working with clients in specific sec-tors of the economy, mostly industrial,manufacturing and technology. Hisclients do business throughout the re-gion, including Thailand, India, Viet-nam, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Laos. It’s a long way from Buffalo, where

Formichella earned bachelor’s andmaster’s degrees in economics beforehis Law School work. “In graduateschool I became increasingly curiousabout the law, especially with regard tothe application of economics and regu-lation,” he says. “At that time the Eco-nomics Department was located inO’Brian Hall, and I had gotten to knowsome law students and had some inter-action with Law School faculty. I wascomfortable with the culture of the LawSchool and found it to be an intellectu-ally rich environment. On the same dayI was informed that I was admitted tothe Law School, I also received a very in-teresting job offer from a trading com-pany. I had to make a decision. I chose

to go to law school.”After that first expe-

rience of Thailand, hereturned in the sum-mer after his secondyear of law school towork as a “foreignsummer intern” in theBangkok office of Bak-er & McKenzie. “Bothmy graduate schooleducation and legal ed-ucation at SUNY Buf-falo prepared me verywell for working in alaw firm handlingcross-border commer-cial and investmenttransactions,” he says.“Once I had the experi-ence from working with Baker in Thai-land, I understood the niche and ad-vantage of being a U.S.-trained lawyeron the ground in a developing market.During my second and third years atSUNY Buffalo Law School, I focused oncourses related to corporate, commer-cial and tax law, which gave me a solidbase to build a commercial transactionpractice overseas.“For example, cross-border transac-

tions were (and are) memorialized inEnglish (even though the parties arenot native English speakers), and therewas a tremendous need for face-to-faceadvice, professional document drafting,etc. Simple things like being in the sametime zone made a difference for theparties because it made transactionsmove forward more expediently.”

After graduation, Formichellaworked for an internationallaw firm in Taiwan; as in-house counsel for a nuclear

power contractor, also in Taiwan; asvice president and general counsel of atelecommunications firm based inHong Kong; and as an attorney in theBangkok office of the firm Minter Elli-son, practicing corporate law. He has been with Blumenthal

Richter & Sumet forseven years, dealingmostly with Thai law.He notes that many ofhis colleagues who areThailand natives havemaster of laws degreesfrom the United Statesand England. He alsohas been talking withhis alma mater aboutsetting up a chapter ofthe Law Alumni Associ-ation for alums workingin Asia.One might think

that mastering the lan-guage would be a formi-dable barrier in the ver-bally exacting business

of law, but Formichella says it isn’t so.“I’m not a fluent Thai speaker,” he says,“but I understand and can listen towhat is going on around me. I stillspeak some Mandarin, which I learnedwhile living in Taiwan. But most of thework is conducted in English.”Formichella and his wife, a Thai na-

tive, have a daughter, 5, and a son, 3, andhe says his adopted city is very hos-pitable to family life. “Bangkok hasmany activities and places that are fam-ily-friendly,” he says. “There are manythings to do in the city, and it is a rela-tively safe place to live. It is an interna-tional city and is now estimated to bethe most-visited capital city worldwide(just ahead of Paris), so there is alwaysthe presence of foreign visitors andtourists. It is also a very affordable cityrelative to major cities in the UnitedStates. My kids go to a bilingual school(English and Thai), and now my 5-year-old daughter will correct my Thaiand her mother’s English.”Nevertheless, he says, “It is always a

challenge not being a native speaker ofthe language, and not being a citizen,which means that you do not fully par-ticipate in society. But I am very com-fortable here.”

26 Alumni Profiles

Worldly transactionsA SUNY Buffalo-trained lawyer finds his niche in Southeast Asia

“At SUNY Buffalo LawSchool, Ifocused oncourses relatedto corporate,commercialand tax law,which gave mea solid base tobuild acommercialtransactionpracticeoverseas.”

— JohnFormichella ’96

John Formichella ’96


In Switzerland,Brent Nowicki ’06helps settle athletic disputes

Like a lot of lawyers, Brent Nowicki ’06 has hard-won ad-vice to give to law students. “Dowhat you love,” he says. “Attor-

neys spend a lot of time at their desk, alot of time handling other people’sproblems and issues, a lot of time awayfrom their family. If you don’t truly loveyour job, the stress of spending all thattime is compounded.”Unlike some other lawyers, though,

Nowicki has followed his own advice. Atalented lacrosse player at Fairfield Uni-versity in Connecticut, where he waspart of several championship teams as amidfielder, Nowicki has crafted a careerin sports law that now has taken him toLausanne, Switzerland, where he is LegalCounsel for the Court of Arbitration forSport. The CAS resolves legal disputes –from corporate sponsorship contractsto doping allegations – from the sportsworld through arbitration. “I don’t think my plan was to end up

here in Lausanne,” Nowicki says. “Per-haps it was fate. I just followed myheart.”After his Law School graduation,

Nowicki worked at the Buffalo law firmHodgson Russ, where he practiced com-mercial and insurance litigation beforedeveloping a specialty in sports law. “Ibecame determined to take what I loved(sports) and find a way to combine itwith my skill set (legal),” he says. Nowicki credits Ronald L. Jaros ’66, a

longtime sports attorney in labor issues,for opening the door to his first sportslaw assignment, as a regional attorneyfor the Professional Lacrosse Players As-sociation. “The light bulb went off,”Nowicki said, “and from that moment, Iknew I needed to find a way to make thiswork.”His legal work in sports grew, includ-

ing representing Robert Kendrick and

Dimitar Kutrovsky, two professionaltennis players from the Unitd States, andCaroline Maher, an Egyptian taekwon-do competitor, in doping appeals beforethe CAS, as well as handling contract ne-gotiations for professional football andlacrosse players. The CAS had never had a North

American attorney in its court before, sowhen the opportunity presented itself,Nowicki made the leap to Switzerland.“In the end, it was the perfect opportu-nity to handle true sports-related issuesand disputes at the highest level,” hesays. “On a day-to-day basis, I get to re-view, consider and opine on legal issuesthat affect sport franchises, Olympiccommittees, sporting federations, majorevent sponsors, and the lives and careersof athletes. Our workload includes dop-ing cases, eligibility issues, player/club/agent disputes, field of play disputes,player transfer disputes, breach of con-tracts (commercial) and sponsorshipagreements, and just about anything elseyou can imagine in the field of sport.”And Europe, he says, is at the center

of the sports world. “The world of sportis just massive outside of the UnitedStates,” Nowicki says. “Europe has beenhandling these matters under a stand-alone practice of law for 20 years, so the

idea of sports law is far moredeveloped here. And outsideof football (soccer), athletesare not hugelycompensated. It’s a passionthing here – both from aplayer and fanperspective. That passionruns all the way to the law.”As one of six Legal Coun-

sels at the CAS, Nowickicompares his work to that ofa federal court clerk. “Webrief the case, digest it withthe arbitrator or arbitrationpanel, and see it through thehearing,” he says. “I’m draft-ing decisions and doing re-search.”And the public is watch-

ing. “We have cases that arefiled at 4 o’clock on aWednesday afternoon, and adecision has to be made

Thursday morning because it will affectthat night’s game. These are games thatmight be attended by 100,000 peopleand watched by 10 million. Our job is todecide in a very short time whether thatgame should be played. People here arepassionate about sport.”Nowicki sees the field of sports law –

lex sportiva – as exploding in the nextfew years, as for example issues of matchfixing and spot fixing (bribing players inorder to fix a bet on some aspect of agame, such as when the first offsides callwill be made) which could arise in U.S.sports as well as overseas. “The CAS ju-risprudence is looked at as the authorityon so many of these issues,” he says, “soshaping the law is pretty exciting.” As for his first passion, lacrosse, he

has found a way to keep it alive as well.Having played recreationally as a way toget to know some athletes in his adoptedtown, he has now signed on as a coachfor the Swiss national team that willcompete next year, in Denver, for theFederation of International LacrosseWorld Cup. “Coaching these guys isawesome,” he says, “because they reallywant to absorb what you have to teachthem. There’s much more of a team ap-proach to the sport here.”


On the Supreme Court of sport

Left to right: Former Buffalo Bills wide receiver Andre Reed, former Buffalo Bills coach Marv Levy and Brent Nowicki ’06.


28 Alumni Association

SUNY Buffalo Law Alumni Associationelects 2013-14 officers and directors

Gilbride ’88 elected president

Terrence M.Gilbride ’88has beenelected 2013-

2014 president of theSUNY Buffalo LawAlumni Association.Gilbride is a partner inthe Buffalo office ofHodgson Russ LLPwhere he practices in the areas of realestate, public finance, higher education,commercial leasing and public/privatepartnerships. Gilbride focuses his prac-tice on large, multifaceted commercialreal estate development projects, and

co-chairs the firm’s Col-lege & University PracticeGroup. Hon. Lenora B. Foote-

Beavers ’97 of Erie Coun-ty Family Court is thenew president-elect. Vicepresidents are: Marc W.Brown ’99 of GoldbergSegalla LLP, Joseph N.Del Vecchio ’96 of Na-tional Fuel ResourcesInc.; Mary Pat EnrightFleming ’85 of the UnitedStates Attorney’s Office;Brian D. Gwitt ’98 of Da-mon Morey LLP, andRobert P. Heary ’91 ofHiscock & Barclay LLP.Treasurer is Michael

A. Piette ’80 of JaeckleFleischmann & Mugel,LLP; assistant treasurer isPietra G. Lettieri ’01 ofHarris Beach PLLC; sec-retary is Mary MoormanPenn ’99; and assistantsecretary is Marion K.Henderson ’65, retired.Immediate past presi-

dent is Brian M. Melber’96 of Personius Melber

LLP. Vice Dean for Alumni, Public Re-lations and Communications Ilene R. Fleischmann of SUNY Buffalo LawSchool, continues as executive director.Lisa M. Mueller ’93, assistant dean foralumni and communications, serves asassistant director.New directors elected for terms end-

ing in 2016 are Melissa A. Foti ’03 ofKenney Shelton Liptak Nowak LLP,Anne E. Joynt ’05 of Lipsitz & Ponterio,LLC, Thomas F. Knab ’88 of Underberg& Kessler LLP, Joseph D. Morath ’05 ofConnors & Vilardo LLP, Paulette E.Ross ’97 of Gibson, McAskill & CrosbyLLP, Andrea Schillaci ’82 of Hurwitz &Fine, PC, and Stephen A. Sharkey ’88 ofBond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC.

Front row, left to right: Assistant Director Lisa M.Mueller, Mary Penn, Executive Director and ViceDean Ilene R. Fleischmann, LAA President TerrenceM. Gilbride, Jeffrey F. Reina, Amy P. Herstek, Robert P.Heary, Hon. Lenora B. Foote-Beavers, Hon. Frank R.Bayger, Sally J. Broad, Brian M. Melber and LaurieStyka Bloom.

Second row, left to right: Pietra G. Lettieri, Joseph N.Del Vecchio, Mary Pat Enright Fleming and Anne E.Joynt.

Third row, left to right: Ryan J. Mills, Paulette E. Rossand Thomas F. Knab.

On stairs, left to right: William A. Gersten, Brian D.Gwitt, Dennis R. McCoy, Stephen A. Sharkey, Scott C.Becker, Richard F. DiGiacomo, Marc W. Brown,Anthony J. Colucci Jr., Sheldon K. Smith, Michael T.Feeley, Joseph D. Morath, Jr., Andrea Schillaci,Christopher E. Copeland, William F. Savino andLinda Lalli Stark.


Officers and directors of theLaw Alumni Association’sGOLD (Graduates of theLast Decade) Group, an

arm of the Association focused on or-ganizing educational, social and net-working opportunities to assist recentgraduates as they transition from stu-dent to attorney, were also elected.Teia Marie Bui ’08 of Gross, Shuman,Brizdle & Gilfillan, PC will serve as2013-14 GOLD Group president.President-elect is Kevin J. Espinosa

’09 of Hodgson Russ LLP. Immediatepast president is James M. O’Keefe ’07of the Law Offices of William Mattar;treasurer is Marnie E. Smith ’09 ofHarris Beach PLLC; treasurer-elect isJoshua E. Dubs ’08 of the Law Officesof Joshua E. Dubs; secretary is JeffreyT. Fiut ’10 of Hodgson Russ LLP; andsecretary-elect is Seth D. Pullen ’09 ofBiltekoff & Pullen, LLP. Other GOLD Group directors in-

clude: Elizabeth Blazey-Pennel ’11 ofthe Internal Revenue Service;Stephanie J. Calhoun ’08 of the NewYork State Attorney General’s Office;Ryan P. Crawford ’06 of Gibson,McAskill & Crosby, LLP; Frank H.Ewing ’12 of Hodgson Russ LLP;Kathleen T. Feroleto ’11 of Brown &Kelly, LLP; Elizabeth Fox-Solomon’06 of New York State Supreme Court,Appellate Division, Fourth Depart-ment; Kimberly A. Georger ’08 ofRupp, Baase, Pfalzgraf, Cunningham& Coppola, LLC; Jeffrey P. Gleason ’08of Damon Morey LLP; Thomas M.Gordon ’05 of Gross, Shuman, Brizdle& Gilfillan, P.C.; Michael J. Hecker ’09of Hodgson Russ LLP; Bradley S.Loliger ’13 of Legal Services for the El-derly, Disabled, or Disadvantaged ofWestern New York; Melissa M. Mor-ton ’07 of Gibson, McAskill & Crosby,LLP; Ryan K. Parisi ’10 of The ParisiFirm; Michael E. Reyen ’09 of Hodg-son Russ, LLP; Shatorah N. Roberson’12 of The Roberson Law Firm; andPatricia C. Sandison ’07 of HodgsonRuss LLP.


2013-14GOLD Group

Chairs of the Association’s regional alumni chapters include: Rachel P.Ainspan ’12 of Boies, Schiller and Flexner LLP and Kevin M. Grossman ’04 ofthe New York State Governor’s Office of Employee Relations, co-chairs of theAlbany Chapter; Sam M. Tamburo ’68 of the Law Office of Sam M. Tamburo,chair of the Central New York Chapter;Daniel A. Sikka ’07 of McDonald’s Cor-poration, chair of the Chicago Chapter; Anshu Pasricha ’07 of White and Case,LLP, chair of the New York City Chapter; Wende J. Knapp ’10 of Harter Secrestand Emery LLP and Jennifer K. Meldrum ’10 of Woods Oviatt Gillman, LLP,co-chairs of the Rochester Chapter, and Christopher R. Moran ’11 of the Inter-nal Revenue Service, chair of the Washington, D.C. Chapter.

Front row, left to right: Executive Director and Vice Dean Ilene R. Fleischmann,Assistant Director Pat Warrington, Rebecca Z. McCauley, GOLD Group President TeiaM. Bui, Melissa M. Morton, Ryan P. Crawford and Jeffrey T. Fiut.

Second row, left to right: Anne E. Joynt and Frank H. Ewing.

Third row, left to right: Stephanie J. Calhoun, Shatorah N. Roberson and ElizabethBlazey-Pennel.

On stairs, left to right: James M. O’Keefe, Michael E. Reyen, Ryan K. Parisi, Seth D.Pullen, Thomas M. Gordon, Joshua E. Dubs, Kevin J. Espinosa, Marnie E. Smith,Michael J. Hecker and Jeffrey P. Gleason.

Regional Chapter leadership

Connect with your chapter: www.law.buffalo.edu/chapter-leadership


THE WIDE ANGLEAlumni connections across the nation

30 Around the Chapters

Left to right:

Beth M. Kaufman

’09, Zachary G.

Schurkman ’10,

Brian J. Vannella

’09, Elizabeth A.

Fiorelli ’09,

Brian D. Miller

’08 and

Anuththara

L.Jayasekara ’09

Left to right: Alex

ander M.

Seiden ’12, Canda

ce M. Jackson

’09, Nathnael T. Yo

hannes ’12,

Dean Makau W. M

utua and

Karema T. Page ’0

5

NEW YORK CITY

Summer Social –Pamp

ano Restaurant

D.C.Anniver

sary Party –Sidle

y Austin Left to right:

Kathi S. Westcott’94 and eventhosts David K.Koehler ’94 andKristin GrahamKoehler ’94

Left to right: Jenna A. M

oran ’10, Christopher

R. Moran ’11, Hon Paul

L. Friedman ’68 and

Roger V. Barth ’63

Wherever you work or live, youcan connect with your SUNYBuffalo Law classmates andfriends by liking the SUNY

Buffalo Law Alumni Association on Facebook.Visit www.facebook.com/SUNYBuffaloLAA toget connected today!

AnshuPasricha ’07and BurimNamani ’07

Fiona M.Dutta ’08 andBrianHolland ’08

Left to right: Ryan T. Black ’12, Nathnael T.

Yohannes ’12 and Alexander M. Seiden ’12

D.C.Buffalo Nite –Capitol Hill



Left to right:

Franz M.

Wright ’14,

Andrew

Kleehammer

’12 and

Stephanie M.

Poray ’12.

ROCHESTERReception for newstudents

Left to right: Hon. Brian F. DeJoseph, Hon. James P.

McClusky ’88, Hon. Erin P. Gall ’96, Hon. Patrick F.

MacRae ’79, Hon. Michael L. Hanuszczak ’84, Hon.

Samuel D. Hester ’70, Hon. Louis P. Gigliotti ’82,

Hon. Joseph E. Fahey ’03 (LLM) and Hon. Donald

F. Cerio Jr. ’83

CENTRAL NEW YORKReception With the Judiciary

Hon. John J. Ark ’72and Vice DeanJames R. Newton

BUFFALOGold Group Mixer –Pettibones

Hon. LenoraB. Foote-Beavers ’97and Bradley S.Loliger ’13

Left to right:

Jeffrey T. Fiut

’10, Marnie E.

Smith ’09 and

Jeffrey P.

Gleason ’08

Left to right:Susan S.Laluk ’85,Wende J.Knapp ’10,RochesterChapterChairJennifer K.Meldrum ’10and Laura A.Myers ’05.

ROCHESTERSummer Social –Genesee Brew House

Left to right: Thomas M. Gordon ’05, Kathleen T. Feroleto ’11,Pietra G. Lettieri ’01 and Melissa A. Foti ’03

Left to right: Nicole E. H

aimson

’12, Emily M. Ciulla ’12 a

nd

Rachel P. Ainspan ’12

ALBANYInformal So

cial –

City Beer Hall

Left to right: Miro F. Cizin ’92, DianeWightman and Christopher A. Wightman ’99

SAN FRANCISCOInformal Social –21st AmendmentBrewery and Cafe


When Harry Potter fansdress up as Gryffindorand flick their magicwands, or devotees of Star

Warswrite and post “fan fiction” abouttheir favorite characters, is that harm-less play – or copyright infringement?That question is a hot-button issue

today in intellectual property law, and itis the subject of SUNY Buffalo LawSchool’s signature Mitchell Lecture.The speaker is Madhavi Sunder, a lead-ing scholar of law and culture whoteaches at the University of CaliforniaDavis School of Law.In her lecture, titled “Learning by

Doing” and scheduled for Oct. 8 atSUNY Buffalo Law, Sunder will discusshow consumers’ increasing demand for“participatory experiences” presentschallenges and cautions in the arena ofIP law.“The explosion of participatory ex-

periential activity extends to a range ofcontemporary activities, from karaoketo flash mobs, YouTube to Comic-Con,” Sunder says. “Copyright ownershave tolerated much fan activity on thetheory that lawsuits can turn fans’ loveto hate. But the emergence of an ‘expe-rience economy’ may lead some ownersof cultural property to reconsider theirlaissez-faire attitude toward play.” Forexample, she says, Amazon and WarnerBros. are trying to license fan fictionwith an eye toward making a profitfrom it.But, Sunder says, that impulse raises

caution flags about “the commoditiza-tion of fundamental human experi-ences and play.” Learning theorists havelong understood that people learn bestthrough experience – by doing. Effortsto regulate those experiences – what shedescribes as “singing, writing and play-ing together, learning music and art bycopying masters, dancing and puttingon costumes” – may impinge on funda-mental human activity. And because IPlaw is “fundamentally about promotingknowledge and learning,” Sunder says,

lawyers need to be careful to protectthat goal even when they are asked tohelp corporations turn such play into acommodity to be bought and sold.Sunder’s legal scholarship ranges

widely, from intellectual property tohuman rights law and the First Amend-ment. She has been a visiting professorat the Yale, University of Chicago andCornell law schools, and is currently theThelton E. Henderson Visiting Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Cali-fornia Berkeley School of Law. She wasnamed a Carnegie Scholar in 2006.Sunder’s articles have been published inthe Yale Law Journal, the Stanford LawReview, the California Law Reviewand Law and Contemporary Problems,among other journals; and her most re-cent book, From Goods to a Good Life:Intellectual Property and Global Justice,was published last year by Yale Universi-ty Press. SUNY Buffalo Law School’s most

prestigious lecture series, the MitchellLecture was endowed in 1950 by a giftfrom Lavinia A. Mitchell, in memory ofher husband, James McCormickMitchell. An 1897 graduate of the Buf-falo Law School, Mitchell later served aschairman of the Council of the Univer-sity of Buffalo, which was then a privateuniversity. Justice Robert H. Jackson de-livered the first Mitchell Lecture in1951, titled “Wartime Security and Lib-erty Under Law.” The lecture was pub-lished that year in the first issue of theBuffalo Law Review.Mitchell Lecture programs have

brought many distinguished speakersto the Law School. These have includedJustice Robert H. Jackson, Richard Pos-ner, Irene Khan, C. Edwin Baker, Der-rick Bell, Barry Cushman, CatharineMcKinnon, Carrie Menkel-Meadow,Richard Posner and Clyde Summers,among others.

32 As We Go to Press

Learning by Doing,2013 Mitchell LectureLooking at fandom, commerce and the freedom to play

Getty Images

Professor MadhaviSunder, Universityof California DavisSchool of Law

A fan at the New York Comic-Con. Is this harmless play or copyright infringement?


SUNY Buffalo Law Forum Editor: Ilene R. [email protected]

Designer:John Davis

Cover photo:Rob McElroy

Photographers:Janet Charles, Donald Dannecker, Rob McElroy, K.C. Kratt, Doug Levere and Nancy Parisi

Mailing address: SUNY Buffalo Law Forum 310 O’Brian HallBuffalo, NY 14260

Visit us at www.law.buffalo.edu

Send your class notes to Cynthia Watts Rogers at [email protected] for inclusion in our online newsletter, SUNY Buffalo Law Links. Send your comments or suggestions to Ilene R. Fleischmann at [email protected].

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© Copyright 2013 by SUNY Buffalo Law School • Volume 28, Number 1. All Rights Reserved

John Lord O’Brian family visits O’Brian HallPosing in the Charles B. Sears Law Library

in front of a Virginia Cuthbert portrait of their

illustrious ancestor, John Lord O’Brian,

Class of 1898, are from left to right:

• Lucy Butsch (married to grandson)

• Dr. John Lord Butsch (grandson)

• John Lord Hettrick, III (great-great-grandson)

• Allison Echeverria (great-great-granddaughter)

• Sarah Brugh (great-great-granddaughter)

• Anna Brugh (great-great-granddaughter)

• Lawrence Brugh (great-great-grandson)

• James Brugh (great-great-grandson)

• Heather Brugh (great-granddaughter)

• Jack Echeverria (married to great-great-granddaughter)

• Jane Hettrick (married to great-grandson)


SUNY Buffalo Law School

John Lord O’Brian Hall

Buffalo, NY 14260-1100

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Nonprofit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDBuffalo NY

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We know the route to success, but we needyour help. Our course is plotted, but we need yourhelp to continue our journey of creating the best,brightest and most talented legal minds in the profes-sion. Help us mark our place on the map as a world-class, premier law school. Support the 2013-14 AnnualFund today and give us the fuel we need to succeed.

Ways to GiveBy Phone • Please call (716) 645-2109Online • Make a secure transaction with your credit card atwww.law.buffalo.edu/givingBy Mail • Make your check payable to “UB Foundation – LawSchool” and send to UB Foundation, Inc., P.O. Box 730,Buffalo, NY 14226-0730If you have any questions or would like to make a

gift, please contact Lucy Dadd at (716) 645-2113 [email protected]. THANK YOU!

Anne E. Joynt ’05Buffalo

Jason Y. Lee ’07New York City

Celeste M. Murphy ’97 Washington, DC

Jeremy W. Schulman ’97Washington, DC

2013–14 Annual Fund Co-Chairs

On our road to success, it’s time to refuel!

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