Professor Isabel Marcus to receive UB’s 2012 Award for Outstanding Contributions to International Education

Professor Isabel Marcus has been selected to receive UB’s 2012 Award for Outstanding Contributions to International Education. This award is conferred by the Council on International Studies and Programs (CISP) with the approval of UB’s Interim Provost, Bruce McCombe, following a rigorous selection process. In past years, more than one recipient has been chosen, but this year CISP determined that Isabel should be the sole recipient.

The selection committee cited in particular Professor Marcus’ pioneering and longstanding work in the areas of international human rights, women’s and reproductive rights, and domestic violence in several different world regions, where her impact has been truly extraordinary. Professor Marcus’ generous and selfless efforts have changed lives and transformed institutions.

Harvard Law dean to highlight SUNY Buffalo Law Commencement ceremony

Martha Minow

Campaigning for president in 2008, Sen. Barack Obama was asked why he had chosen a career in public service rather than corporate law. “When I was at Harvard Law School,” he responded, “I had a teacher who changed my life – Martha Minow.”

That influential teacher – now dean of Harvard Law as well as the Dean and Jeremiah Smith Jr. Professor at that institution – will be the keynote speaker May 19 as SUNY Buffalo Law School celebrates its 123rd Commencement exercises.

Known as an expert in human rights whose scholarship has focused on members of racial and religious minorities and women, children and persons with disabilities, Minow has written about the legal and ethical issues arising from private military contractors, the management of mass torts, transitional justice, and law, culture and social change.

She is the author of more than 150 articles, and her books include In Brown’s Wake: Legacies of America’s Educational Landmark (2010); Partners, Not Rivals: Privatization and the Public Good (2002); Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History After Genocide and Mass Violence (1998); Not Only for Myself: Identity Politics and Law (1997); and Making all the Difference: Inclusion, Exclusion, and American Law (1990).

Following nomination by President Obama and confirmation by the Senate, she serves as vice chair of the board of the Legal Services Corp., an independent non-profit corporation that promotes equal access to justice and provides grants for high-quality civil legal assistance to low-income Americans.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Michigan and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Minow received her law degree at Yale Law School before serving as a law clerk to Judge David Bazelon of the U.S. Court of Appeals and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. She joined the Harvard Law faculty in 1981.

Samuel L. Green ’67

The May 19 Commencement ceremony, to be held in the Center for the Arts on the University at Buffalo North Campus, will also include awarding of the Dean’s Medal – presented by Dean Makau W. Mutua to an individual who is distinguished by his or her commitment to justice and the rule of law – to Hon. Samuel L. Green ’67, who retired at the end of 2011 as the longest-serving justice of the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, New York State Supreme Court.

Steven R. Sugarman ’85

In addition, the Ken Joyce Excellence in Teaching Award will be presented to Steven R. Sugarman, an attorney in private practice and 1985 graduate of the Law School. Sugarman, a popular adjunct professor of basic and advanced mediation courses in the Law School, has extensive training in neutral mediation and has built a large mediation practice with the firm of Pusatier Sherman Abbott & Sugarman, in Kenmore.

A total of 212 J.D.’s will be awarded.

SUNY’s head trustee gets Law School grand tour

New York State’s public law school entertained a visitor with deep roots in public service to the state – and by all reports, he liked what he saw.

H. Carl McCall, the former state comptroller, current member of the state’s fiscal control board for the City of Buffalo and chairman of the State University of New York Board of Trustees, toured SUNY Buffalo Law School on May 2. He met with Dean Makau W. Mutua, who spoke at length to him about significant recent developments that have moved the school toward academic excellence. These include a large cohort of excellent faculty hires, the rising caliber of incoming classes of students, the school’s increased support for faculty scholarship at the highest level, and successful efforts aimed at fundraising and mobilizing the school’s 10,000 alumni across the nation and worldwide.

The dean also laid out for McCall some of the challenges facing law schools generally, and detailed an upcoming program, Panel on Legal Education Excellence, that will bring four nationally recognized experts to UB on May 9. They will meet with key stakeholders to assess the school’s current status and recommend how best it can move forward.

McCall’s visit also included a tour of the Law School’s newly renovated facility in John Lord O’Brian Hall, with improvements including a new student lounge, a revamped and more welcoming first floor, and improved teaching technology in classrooms. He also spoke with a number of students as they came near to semester-ending examinations, and interacted with senior Law School administrators and staff.

As chairman of the SUNY Board of Trustees, McCall leads an 18-member governing body for the 64-campus system, the nation’s largest public higher education system. He was appointed to that post by New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

Senator Grisanti speaks to UB Environmental Law Society for Earth Day

Monday April 23
6:00-8:00 p.m.
Room 509, O’Brian Hall,
SUNY Buffalo Law School
University at Buffalo
(North Campus)

Senator Mark Grisanti (R-60) will deliver the keynote address for the Buffalo Environmental Law Society at the SUNY Buffalo Law School to honor Earth Day on Monday April 23, 2012, from 6:00-8:00 p.m., Room 509, O’Brian Hall, University at Buffalo (North Campus). Senator Grisanti is the Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Environmental Conservation and will address environmental issues before the New York Senate in his address.

“The Buffalo Environmental Law Society is thrilled to have Senator Grisanti address our group at SUNY Buffalo Law School. For the past two years, we have followed his work in the Senate and as Chair of the Environmental Conservation Committee. We appreciate the bills he has sponsored and the subjects he has had hearings on. As a lawyer and Senator, Grisanti can address issues from a unique perspective of interest to our members,” said Adam Hayes ’13, Earth Week Coordinator, Buffalo Environmental Law Society.

The Audubon Council named Senator Grisanti the winner of the 2012 William B Hoyt Environmental Excellence award for his outstanding work on behalf of conservation and the environment. In presenting the award, the Audubon Council recognized work that Grisanti has done over the past two years in support of the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF), helping to maintain the funding even in difficult economical times. Legislation Grisanti sponsored encourages increased awareness of the good work of the EPF noting it has worked in neighborhoods across the state on open space acquisition, water quality improvements, maintaining parks, historic structures and recycling improvements. Grisanti has also championed the use of metal bottles with caps that are more environmentally friendly than glass, easier to recycle and cost less to refrigerate. Recently Grisanti also saw passage in the Senate of bills he championed that ensure someone from Niagara Falls will serve on the Niagara Power Authority to control the cost of local electricity and a bill to ensure prompt and precise reporting by sewage authorities of any spills or overflows that occur in local waterways causing potential threats to people utilizing water for commercial or residential usage.

“I am honored to address the Buffalo Environmental Law Society at the University at Buffalo to commemorate Earth Day. This is a special day where people of all nationalities and backgrounds join together to show their appreciation for the planet and discuss ways each can participate in actions designed to protect it. It is very appropriate that today I am here with students who have dedicated their future practice of law to issues that surround the environment including water and air quality, hazardous waste, species protection, waste management and agriculture. I commend them for their dedication to conserving the environment for future generations,” said Senator Grisanti.

SUNY Buffalo Law holds cutting-edge environmental law conference

Beyond Jurisdiction: Wetlands Policy for the Next Generation
April 26th – 27th, 2012

Register to Attend

Last month, the United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling opining on Environmental Protection Agency Clean Water Act enforcement in Sackett v. EPA. SUNY Buffalo Law School and the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy will open a conference on the future of wetlands regulation on Thursday, April 26, with a 2 p.m. panel featuring Damien Schiff, Principle Attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation who made the successful Supreme Court argument, as well as other experts who will discuss the future of environmental enforcement after that case.

The conference will take place on April 26 and 27 in O’Brian Hall at the University at Buffalo’s North Campus. Thursday’s opening panel will be held in the law school’s Francis M. Letro Courtroom. Two free CLE credits will be available for attorneys who attend the Thursday panel, and six free CLE credits will be available for attorneys who attend on Friday. A reception for all registered attendees will follow the panel on Thursday, and complimentary breakfast and lunch will be available to registered attendees on Friday.

According to SUNY Buffalo Law School Professor Kim Diana Connolly, Director of the Environmental Law Program and Clinical Legal Education as well as convener for the conference, “That panel will kick off a conference seeking to move beyond a stagnated debate on the future of wetlands regulation. Academic experts and on-the-ground advocates will come together to explore new options in a changing world.”

Wetlands are vital ecosystems that have long been regulated in a complex and convoluted manner. For more than a decade, debates sparked by U.S. Supreme Court decisions and related administrative and Congressional action focused much of the work in wetlands policy on which areas are actually jurisdictional under federal and state law. Noted attorneys and professors from the U.S. and Canada, including local experts, will explore diverse and important issues such as climate change, watershed-based regulation, takings, mitigation, other forms of regulation, and related matters.

“Wetlands law provides a microcosm of the environmental law world – various stakeholders have long held passionate views as to what is best, resulting in a convoluted and contentious regulatory scheme,” says Connolly. “In recent years we have been mired in one particular debate that has sidelined other crucial discourse, on top of which political and media realities have distracted from the ability to make real progress.”

Says SUNY Buffalo Law School Dean Makau Mutua, “We are proud that SUNY Buffalo Law School can host so many distinguished speakers exploring such timely topics.” Besides Damien Schiff, presenters will include:

• Patrick A. Parenteu – Senior Counsel to the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic and Professor of Law, Vermont Law School
• Tim Hoffman – Counsel, Office of the New York Attorney General
• Jonathan H. Adler – Professor and Director, Center for Business Law and Regulation, Case Western Reserve
• Nicolas A. Robinson – Professor of Law, Pace Law School
• Lance Wood – Assistant Chief Counsel, Environmental Law and Regulatory Programs of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Lecturer, George Washington Law School
• Patricia Farnese – Associate Professor, University of Saskatchewan College of Law
• Royal C. Gardner – Dean, Professor of Law and Director, Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy, Stetson Law

Other noted experts will join in various panels as well. Further information and registration information for the free conference is available on the conference’s website.

This program qualifies for 2.0 credits in the area of Professional Practice on Thursday, April 26, 2012 and qualifies for 6.0 credits in the area of Professional Practice on Friday, April 27, 2012. SUNY Buffalo Law School has been certified by the New York State Continuing Legal Education Board as an Accredited Provider of continuing legal education in the State of New York for the period of March 11, 2011 – March 10, 2014. SUNY Buffalo Law School has a financial hardship policy. For further information on our policy, contact Lisa Mueller, CLE Coordinator at (716) 645-3176

Buffalo Criminal Law Society holds highly successful 2012 Wechsler Competition for 24 schools

The SUNY Buffalo Law School’s Criminal Law Society is happy to announce the results of the fourteenth annual Herbert Wechsler National Criminal Law Moot Court Competition, which was held Saturday, March 31, 2012 at the Buffalo County Courthouse in downtown Buffalo.

The Wechsler Moot Court Competition, named after the drafter of the Model Penal Code, is the only national moot court competition in the United States to focus on topics in substantive criminal law. This year, as before, the Wechsler Moot Court Competition problem was based upon a case that is currently pending before the United States Supreme Court. The problem addressed the constitutionality of sentencing juveniles to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for crimes involving homicide. Twenty-four different law schools from across the United States sent teams to Buffalo for this well-recognized and well-established national competition.

The winner of the 2012 Wechsler Competition was a team from Catholic University Columbus School of Law (Michael Ellement and Kevin Lowell), with second-place honors going to a team from the University of North Dakota School of Law (Amanda Gill and Joel Engel). The Best Brief Award went to the University of Kansas School of Law (Christine VanBalarcum and Benjamin Winters), and the award for Best Oral Advocate went to Brianna Trombley from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law. [View photo of competition winners and Final Round judges.]

The Ryan J. Mullins ’3 Award, presented annually in the memory of this former Wechsler Competition Recruitment and Events Chair, to the competitor who best exemplifies his spirit, passion and enthusiasm, went to Sabrina Atkins from Mercer University School of Law. Teams from Appalachian School of Law and CUNY School of Law were the other semi-finalists. SUNY Buffalo Law was represented by two teams, comprised of Frank Ewing ’12, Corey Forester ’13, Jonathan Placito’12, and Christopher Safulko ’13, and coached by Audrey Herman ’11, a SUNY Buffalo Law.

Among the other law schools sending teams to the 2012 Wechsler Competition were NYU, the Universities of Wisconsin and Michigan, William & Mary, the University of Toledo, Hofstra, University of Florida, Ohio State University College of Law and University of Louisville.

On the bench for the Final Round of the Competition were the Hon. Gerard E. Lynch, of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; the Hon. George Bundy Smith, Retired Judge of the New York Court of Appeals; and the Hon. Tracey A. Bannister of the New York State Supreme Court. Judge Lynch, who is also the Paul J. Kellner Professor of Law at the Columbia Law School, served as Chief Justice and delivered the keynote address at the awards banquet. Judge Smith, who has been the Wechsler Competition’s best and most loyal supporter – judging the Competition’s Final Round every year for the past decade – presented the Ryan J. Mullins “spirit of the competition” award.

The Buffalo Criminal Law Society’s Executive Board (Kaitlyn Faucett, Joseph Emminger, Andrew Kleehammer, Jennifer Estleford, Brittany Nasradinaj and Jack Connors, under the leadership of President Rachel Adamitis) was responsible for mounting and managing this highly successful event.

Joel Engel and Amanda Gill (University of North Dakota School of Law - Runner-up), Judge George Bundy Smith, Judge Gerard E. Lynch, Judge Tracey A. Bannister, Michael Ellement and Kevin Lowell (Catholic University Columbus School of Law - Winner).

Dean Mutua re-elected Vice President of the American Society of International Law (ASIL)

SUNY Buffalo Law Dean Makau Mutua, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Floyd H. and Hilda L. Hurst Faculty Scholar, was re-elected for one more year as Vice President of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) on Friday, March 30 in Washington, DC. The ASIL is the most prestigious and largest organization of international lawyers in the world.

The mission of the ASIL is to foster the study of international law and to promote the establishment and maintenance of international relations on the basis of law and justice. ASIL is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, educational membership organization founded in 1906 and chartered by Congress in 1950. The Society holds Category II Consultative Status to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and is a constituent society of the American Council of Learned Societies. The Society is headquartered at Tillar House in Washington, D.C.

The Society’s 4,000 members from nearly 100 nations include attorneys, academics, corporate counsel, judges, representatives of governments and nongovernmental organizations, international civil servants, students and others interested in international law.

Through meetings, publications, information services and outreach programs, ASIL advances international law scholarship and education for international law professionals as well as for broader policy-making audiences and the public.

ASIL was established in 1906. While its educational mission remains central, its programs have adapted to dramatic changes in international law, as both an expansive topic and an evolving professional discipline.

Lippes Speaker Series to feature renowned Harvard ethicist Lawrence Lessig

To attend the lecture, register online. For inquiries please call 716-645-3204.

Award-winning ethicist and Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School and director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, will deliver a lecture entitled “Institutional Corruption and the Financial Crisis.”

The event will be held at SUNY Buffalo Law School on April 19, at 7 p.m., in John Lord O’Brian Hall, Room 106 on UB’s North Campus.

Lessig’s address, co-sponsored by the SUNY Buffalo Law School and the UB School of Management, is part of the Gerald S. Lippes Speaker Series, one of the university’s highest-profile lecture series. The event is free and open to the public.

According to S. Todd Brown, an associate professor at the Law School and director of its Center for the Study of Business Transactions, Lessig and Safra Center for Ethics have assumed prominent roles in advancing Harvard’s understanding of institutional corruption in business and the American political system.

In the political sphere, “we are not necessarily talking about illegal activity,” Brown says, “just the corruption of its purpose. Much of his work has been about what roles are being corrupted by the way that things are done.”

For example, Brown says, because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case, “many are concerned that we will wind up with these organizations that throw money into political advertising and campaigns at unprecedented levels in order to obtain influence with elected officials.

“It does raise troubling questions, and it’s a great time to have these kinds of discussions, especially with the upcoming presidential election.”

Brown says, “Lessig turned his attention to these questions long before they jumped front and center in the public consciousness. Before Occupy Wall Street and before some within the Tea Party movement latched onto these kinds of questions, Lessig and others working with the Safra Center were focused on improving our understanding of the difficult problems they present.”

Lessig’s previous scholarship focused on law and technology, and he has authored five books on the subject. He also served as lead counsel in a number of important cases marking the boundaries of copyright law in a digital age.

In addition to teaching at Harvard, he was professor of law at Stanford Law School where he founded Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society, and professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School.

Lessig clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

He earned a bachelor of arts in economics and a bachelor of science in management from the University of Pennsylvania, a master of arts in philosophy from Cambridge, and a JD from Yale.

He has received honorary degrees from the University of Amsterdam, Athabasca University and the Georgian-American University.

The Gerald S. Lippes Speaker Series focuses on current issues and topics related to business and finance. It is part of a larger effort to foster an integrated understanding of the worlds of business and law and to encourage a collaborative dialogue between business and legal professionals.

Last year’s speaker was Harvey R. Miller, a nationally renowned bankruptcy lawyer and partner in the international law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, who spoke on “Financial Failure in Bankruptcy through the Prism of Lehman Brothers and General Motors.”

Other presentations have included panels on health care reform; Fortune magazine writer and author of “Faith and Fortune,” Marc Gunther; and Pietra Rivoli, a Georgetown University business professor and author of “The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy.”

The series is funded by the support of Gerald S. Lippes, a 1964 graduate of SUNY Buffalo Law School and a partner in the Buffalo law firm Lippes, Mathias, Wexler, and Friedman LLP.

Since its founding in 1887, SUNY Buffalo Law School — the State University of New York system’s only law school — has established an excellent reputation and is widely regarded as a leader in legal education. Its cutting-edge curriculum provides both a strong theoretical foundation and the practical tools graduates need to succeed in a competitive marketplace, wherever they choose to practice. A special emphasis on interdisciplinary studies, public service and opportunities for hands-on clinical education makes SUNY Buffalo Law unique among the nation’s premier public law schools. http://www.law.buffalo.edu/

The UB School of Management is recognized for its emphasis on real-world learning, community and economic impact, and the global perspective of its faculty, students and alumni. The school has been ranked by Bloomberg Businessweek, the Financial Times, Forbes, U.S. News & World Report and The Wall Street Journal for the quality of its programs and the return on investment it provides its graduates. For more information about the UB School of Management, visit http://mgt.buffalo.edu/

Professor James Gardner receives a Fulbright Award

SUNY Distinguished Professor James A. Gardner has been selected for a 2012-2013 Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant, allowing him to live in Montreal, Canada during the fall of 2012, where he will hold the Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in the Theory and Practice of Constitutionalism and Federalism, at McGill University. The title of his project is “Intergovernmental Contestation in Federal Systems.”

Professor Gardner describes his project:

The project, which builds on my prior work in federalism and subnational constitutionalism, has two components. The first examines the tools and methods of intergovernmental contestation, and will involve field research into the ways in which Canadian provinces attempt to influence policy making by the national government and to protect their interests when they disagree with national policy. The second component focuses on the conditions for effective contestation of national power by subnational units (such as states and provinces). This portion of the project will examine the influence of national political parties in setting the political agenda of subnational units; my hypothesis is that national parties tend to induce a convergence in the agendas and substantive positions of national and subnational units, thereby undermining the kind of subnational autonomy that most theories of federalism seem to demand.

A Joseph W. Belluck and Laura L. Aswad Professor of Civil Justice, Gardner’s research interests include the theoretical foundations of the constitutional structure of politics, the institutionalization through law of principles of democracy, constitutional structures of federalism, and subnational constitutional law. He is a frequent commentator in both state and national media on constitutionalism and elections law.

A graduate of Yale University and the University of Chicago Law School, and a former Department of Justice civil attorney, Gardner joined the SUNY Buffalo Law School faculty in 2001 and currently serves as vice dean for academic affairs. His most recent books include What Are Campaigns For? The Role of Persuasion in Electoral Law Politics (Oxford University Press, 2009) and, with a co-author, New Frontiers of State Constitutional Law: Dual Enforcement of Norms (Oxford University Press, 2010). He also the Director the Law School’s Edwin F. Jaeckle Center for State and Local Democracy.

The core Fulbright Scholar Program sends 800 U.S. faculty and professionals abroad each year. The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program offers U.S. faculty, administrators and professionals grants to lecture, conduct research in a wide variety of academic and professional fields, or to participate in seminars.

The Fulbright Program is sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Under a cooperative agreement with the Bureau, the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES) assists in the administration of the Fulbright Scholar Program for faculty and professionals.

SUNY Buffalo Law International Moot Courts Argue for Human Rights

The SUNY Buffalo International Law Moot Court teams recently completed their annual competitions. Each year, SUNY Buffalo sends two teams to compete. One team competes in the Jessup Cup Tournament; the other competes in the Niagara International Moot Court Competition.

Both competitions have students arguing a fictional case in front of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, in the Netherlands. This year both cases involved human rights, jurisdictional issues, and the improper use of force by a state.

The Jessup Cup Tournament is the largest worldwide moot court tournament in existence with over 500 law schools participating from over 80 different countries. The competition has students argue a fictional spinoff of a real life international issue, this year the ICJ case: Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening).

SUNY Buffalo’s Jessup Team competed first in the Midwest Super Regional in Chicago Illinois on Feb. 9-11. Competing on the team were Angelyn Delgato ’12, Milissa Gradel ’13, Michael Das ’13, and Jonathan Dominik ’13. After a tough break the team placed 9th, only due to a total point break of 26 out of 3500 points. The only team to actually defeat SUNY Buffalo was Duke University, who went on to take 2nd place in the tournament.

The Niagara International Moot Court Competition is strictly between the United States and Canada. This year’s competition took place in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 23-25. Eighteen law schools from U.S. and Canadian competed. Similar to the Jessup Cup, teams argue a fictional dispute between Canada and the U.S., based upon real world events. Competitors argue both for, and against each country. This year’s case was based upon Cyclone Nargis, which hit Myanmar (Burma) in 2008, and the current events surrounding al-Bashir with the International Criminal Court.

Competing for the SUNY Buffalo team were Erin Ross ’13, Alissa Fortuna ’13, Adam Durst ’13, Peter Nguyen ’13, and Phil Modrzynski ’13. Additionally, the team had the guidance of student coaches Jake McNamara ’12, and Kaitlyn Faucett ’12. At the Washington, D.C. event, SUNY Buffalo’s competitors distinguished themselves with strong arguments and performances in an exceptionally fierce competition.

Competitors are selected for these teams during the spring semester. Tryouts for 2012-2013 competitors will be held this April for both teams. Competitors are selected based upon their overall performances in writing and oral advocacy. In addition, next year’s Jessup team will give a preference in the selection process to students who have already participated in either the Niagara International or Desmond Moot Court Competitions.