SUNY Buffalo Law School Clinic and the Verizon Foundation Team Up to Assist Pet-Owning Domestic Violence Victims

Domestic violence victims often remain in abusive relationships to prevent their partner from harming or killing their pets. The SUNY Buffalo Law School Women, Children, and Social Justice Clinic’s new project, Animal Shelter Options for Domestic Violence Victims, is designed to remove this barrier to safety for individuals and their pets. With funding from Verizon and collaboration from the New York State Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), law school faculty and students are working to provide individuals seeking emergency shelter with resources to help protect their pets as well as raise awareness about barriers escaping domestic violence faced by victims who have animals.

Professor Suzanne Tomkins, director of the Clinic, explains “we know first hand from catastrophes like Katrina that individuals will not seek safety if they have to leave their pets behind. Our goal is to reduce a very real barrier for abused individuals seeking safety by knowing their pets are cared for and safe.”

Data demonstrate the reality of the link between domestic violence and pet abuse. Seventy-one percent of pet-owning women entering shelters reported that their batterer had harmed killed or threatened family pets for revenge or to psychologically control victims. Likewise, between 25 and 40 percent of battered women with pets feel helpless to escape abusive situations because they worry about what will happen to their animals should they leave.

Other startling statistics: 100% of serial killers started out by abusing animals; 52% of aggravated assaults started out by abusing animals; 48% of rapists started out by abusing animals; 46% of sexual murderers started out by abusing animals; and 30% of pedophiles started out by abusing animals. Although an increasing number of shelters have added kennels or instituted animal foster care programs in an effort to protect victims, their children, and their pets, more needs to be done.

In October 2010, three regional seminars hosted by the DCJS’ Violence Against Women’s Unit along with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), and the New York State Humane Association examined these issues and how they impacted New York. Shortly afterward, DCJS started a survey seeking information on existing relationships between domestic violence shelters and animal shelters to provide emergency shelter for pets. The SUNY Buffalo Law School’s Women, Children, and Social Justice Clinic was brought on board to create a more formal survey, administer it to domestic violence agencies and animal shelters across the state, and develop the database.

This database, which is the first its kind in New York State, is available online. Organized by county, it provides domestic violence victims, domestic violence agencies, law enforcement and advocates with information on programs that can either house victim’s pets or include direct referral systems to agencies that will accept a victim’s pets. The database also includes animal agencies that, even if they don’t yet have a direct partnership with a domestic violence organization, will provide shelter for domestic violence victim’s pets. As Kim Oppelt, program specialist in the Violence Against Women unit of DCJS, remarked “As we consider how to locally address this nationwide dilemma, we are excited that the SUNY Buffalo clinic is helping develop a New York database to ease this very common problem facing domestic violence victims.”

The Clinic’s work will have immediate, practical impact. For example, a link will be made available in the “Domestic and Sexual Violence” section on the Law Enforcement Suite of eJusticeNY to aid officers in assisting victims of domestic violence at the scene. With this new database, officers will have viable options for victims and their pets at the time of the incident.

In addition to creating and implementing the database, the Clinic is working closely with the surrounding counties comprising Western New York to bring awareness to this project and to demonstrate ways in which communities can provide temporary shelter for pets. Clinic faculty and students will travel throughout the region demonstrating the capabilities of the database and to present on the laws associated with the protection of pets of victims of domestic violence.

As law student Karalyn Rossi said, “This clinic project allows me to work in two areas of law that excite me – animal rights and domestic violence. It is so rewarding to know that my research is being applied directly to help victims with pets as they seek shelter.”

SUNY Buffalo Law School students compete in national moot court competition

Twelve students from SUNY Buffalo Law School recently competed in the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition (FDMCC), held during the Northeast Black Law Student Association Convention on January 25-29. The FDMCC is a national appellate advocacy competition organized each year since 1975 by the National Black Law Student Association, the largest law student organization in the United States.

In the 2012 FDMCC Northeast Regionals, two of the teams to make the regional “Sweet Sixteen” were from the Law School: Shea Kolar ‘13 and Benjamin Wolf ‘13, Kimberly Worling ‘13 and Meghan Corcoran ‘13. Worling and Corcoran then progressed to the Competition’s quarterfinal “Elite Eight”.

This year’s Law School participants also included David Dechellis ‘13, Mark Detwiler ‘13, Amber Diem ‘13, Paul Iya ‘13, Natalie Pellegrino ‘13, Richard Porter ‘13, as well as Jared Vega ‘14 and Eamon Kelleher ‘13, who participated in the brief-writing portion of the Competition.

In order to be chosen to represent the Law School in the FDMCC, students are required to compete in an intramural selection process by submitting a case brief and making a mock oral argument. Successful competitors are then matched into teams of two. For the FDMCC itself, each team is required to complete a thirty-page brief based upon a fictional fact pattern presenting constitutional issues. At the Northeast Regional Competition, teams are required to argue at least three times before advancing to the Sweet Sixteen round. This year’s fact pattern dealt with a potentially discriminatory state immigration statute, possible prosecutorial misconduct by a United States attorney, and the possibility that certain language in the federal tax code might be unconstitutionally vague.

SUNY Buffalo Law School has participated in the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition for many years.

Law School to host student-faculty discussion on the status of redistricting efforts in New York State

MEDIA ADVISORY

Democracy Deferred?
Student-Faculty Discussion: New York’s 2012 State Legislative and Congressional Districts
Wednesday, Feb. 22, 1:50 p.m.
509 O’Brian Hall, University at Buffalo, North Campus
Lunch will be provided.

Contact: Andrew Dean ‘14, amdean@buffalo.edu
(315) 794-9098

On Wednesday, February 22, SUNY Buffalo Law School will host “Democracy Deferred?,” a student-faculty discussion on the status of redistricting efforts in New York State. The discussion will take place from 1:50 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. in the Baldy Center Conference Room (509 O’Brian Hall) at the University at Buffalo North Campus.

In January, a group of first-year students at SUNY Buffalo Law School won first-place in Fordham University’s Congressional Redistricting Competition for drawing the New York Congressional Districts using a number of objective criteria. The students will discuss their methodology, goals, and the ongoing success of their efforts to achieve redistricting reform. The winning students were Nutan Sewdath, Eric Tabache, Jacob Drum, Matt Burrows, Lauren Skompinski and Andrew Dean.

Professor James Gardner and law student Andrew Dean ’14 will present on the New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment’s (LATFOR) proposed State Legislative districts. Associate Professor Michael Halberstam will moderate the discussion.

Members of the public, media, faculty and students are encouraged to attend.

Participants:

• UB Student Team, 2012 NYS Redistricting Competition Winners: Andrew Dean ’14, Lauren Skompinski ’14, Eric Tabache ’14, Matt Burrows ’14, Nutan Sewdath ’14, Jacob Drum ’14
• Professor James Gardner, Consultant to Common Cause’s NYS Redistricting Effort
• Associate Professor Michael Halberstam, Commentator

On Being a Black Lawyer (OBABL) names Makau Mutua one of the most influential black attorneys in the U.S.

On Being a Black Lawyer (OBABL) recently selected the 100 most influential black attorneys in the United States. SUNY Buffalo Law School is very pleased to announce that Dean Makau Mutua has been named to this exceptional group.

OBABL will publish “The Power 100 Special Edition” on February 15th in honor of Black History Month. The publication will be available online and will feature profiles of the nation’s most influential black attorneys working in government, academics, and both the public and private sectors.

Makau Mutua is Dean, SUNY Distinguished Professor, and the Floyd H. & Hilda L. Hurst Faculty Scholar at SUNY Buffalo Law School, the State University of New York. He teaches international human rights, international business transactions, and international law. Dean Mutua has been a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School, the University of Iowa College of Law, the University of Puerto Rico School of Law, the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica, and the University of Deusto in Bilbao, Spain.

He was educated at the University of Nairobi, the University of Dar-es-Salaam, and at Harvard Law School, where he obtained a Doctorate of Juridical Science in 1987. Professor Mutua was Co-Chair of the 2000 Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law (ASIL). He is currently a Vice President of the ASIL, and was previously on its Executive Council. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

In 2002-03, while on sabbatical in Kenya, Professor Mutua was appointed by the Government of Kenya as Chairman of the Task Force on the Establishment of a Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission. The Task Force recommended a truth commission for Kenya. During the same time, Professor Mutua was a delegate to the National Constitutional Conference, the forum that produced a contested draft constitution for Kenya.

Previously, Professor Mutua was the Associate Director at the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program. He was also the Director of the Africa Project at the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. He serves as the Chairman of the Kenya Human Rights Commission and sits on the boards of several international organizations and academic journals such as the Leiden Journal of International Law. He is a frequent commentator on politics, human rights, law, and current affairs in the print and electronic media.

OBABL’s editorial team, together with a group of advisers, spent months researching prospective candidates. The selection committee read trade publications, blogs, and critical reviews. A portion of the candidates had appeared on past lists of influential lawyers. For this group, the committee considered whether the candidate’s influence and relevance had increased since the time he or she was last honored. In addition to naming the 100 most influential black attorneys, the committee also included profiles of ten up and coming black attorneys.

OBABL publisher, Yolanda Young notes that according to the American Bar Association, less than 5% of U.S. attorneys are African American. OBABL seeks to help advance diversity in the legal profession.

On Being a Black Lawyer has been recognized by the American Bar Association, National Black Law Students Association, and National Association of Black Journalists. Founded in 2008 as a news and resource center, the company has grown into a social media firm providing research, career development, and brand marketing opportunities to clients.

On February 15th, read “The Power 100 Special Edition.”

Honorees will be toasted at a cocktail reception at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington, DC on February 29, 2012 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Michelle Miller, CBS News correspondent, will serve as Mistress of Ceremony. To cover the reception or request an interview, please contact Jamie Brathwaite at 202-756-1847.

Intensive summer program opens the world of law to promising minority students

Visit the UB Undergraduate Scholars Program website

About two dozen college students will spend four weeks on the University at Buffalo campus this summer to learn about the law and legal studies, develop their writing and test-taking skills, and imagine the possibilities of life as an attorney.

The UB Undergraduate Scholars Program is being sponsored jointly by SUNY Buffalo Law School, the Minority Bar Association of Western New York, and UB’s Millard Fillmore College. Underwritten by the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) Discoverlaw.org, the program will run from June 1 to June 29 this year. It will bring to UB’s North Campus rising sophomores and juniors who represent racial minorities underrepresented in the legal profession.

“The goal,” says Lillie V. Wiley-Upshaw, SUNY Buffalo Law School’s vice dean for admissions and financial aid, “is to encourage these academically promising students to consider law school and to help them acquire the tools they’ll need to succeed.

“Fewer than 10 percent of all attorneys are people of color,” Wiley-Upshaw says, “and that’s certainly not representative of our country. As the State of New York’s law school, we have a responsibility to help change that in our own region and community.”

The three-year commitment for the summer program is being funded with a $300,000 grant from the Law School Admission Council, a national organization that provides services to support the law school admissions process and administers the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). It was a competitive process and the Law School was one of three law schools selected for funding.

Twenty students from Western New York, plus five from Morehouse College in Atlanta, will live in the newly built Greiner Hall during the summer, alongside current SUNY Buffalo Law students who will support them in their academic work. Four SUNY Buffalo Law faculty members will volunteer their time:

• Professor James Wooten will teach a week-long Introduction to Law course, introducing the students to the skills of argumentation.
• Associate Professor Michael Halberstam will introduce the students to Civil and Criminal Procedure and introduce the ethical requirements of the legal profession.
• Professor Charles Patrick Ewing will teach Evidence and Trial Practice, laying out the rules of evidence and their application in adversarial trial practice.
• Professor David Engel will teach Tort Law in Culture and Society, exploring the principles of tort liability for personal injuries.

In addition, the students will be taught the skills of legal analysis, writing and research, for which their teachers will include LAWR staff instructors Johanna Oreskovic and Bernadette Clor; receive intensive coaching on the fundamentals of writing; learn about LSAT test-taking strategies from Barbara Sherk, director of academic support at SUNY Buffalo Law; and learn from Wiley-Upshaw how to navigate the law school admissions process.

Students will also have opportunities to network with members of the Minority Bar Association; reflect on the profession through panel discussions of practitioners; hear from distinguished guest speakers, including Law School Dean Makau W. Mutua and Buffalo City Court Judge E. Jeannette Ogden; and tour Buffalo’s Family Court.

The students also will be hosted by the Hon. Paula L. Feroleto, the Eighth Judicial District Administrative Judge for a half-day program which will include an actual court session. The UB Undergraduate Scholars Program will culminate in a mock oral argument in which students will try out the skills and knowledge they have gained.

Student participants in the program will be paid a stipend of $900 to help defray lost income from summer employment. Applications are now available and can be found on the law school’s website. The application deadline is March 16th.For more information, please contact the Law School’s Admissions Office at (716) 645-2907 or law-admissions@buffalo.edu.

Major grant will fund study to improve the lives of kids in foster care

Making tax dollars devoted to child welfare work most effectively for children is the focus of a promising two-year study led by a SUNY Buffalo Law School professor.

The study, funded with a newly announced $270,269 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, capitalizes on a rich trove of data from Ohio child welfare agencies. It is being led by Professor Susan Vivian Mangold, co-director of the Program for Excellence in Family Law at SUNY Buffalo Law School. Her co-investigators are Dr. Catherine Cerulli, a 1992 UB Law graduate who is an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical School, and Gregory Kapcar, legislative director of the Public Children’s Services Association of Ohio (PCSAO). The data has been collected by PCSAO for over a decade and includes both funding and child outcome data.

The grant is one of 15 announced Jan. 24 by the foundation’s Public Health Law Research Program, whose mission is to promote the effective use of law to improve public health.

Mangold’s project addresses the question: Does the source and/or type of funding, not just the amount of funding, affect health outcomes for children in foster care? The study will examine 10 years’ worth of data from the 88 counties in Ohio, 45 of which have a dedicated local tax levy that provides flexible local child welfare funding. Eighteen other counties have unusual flexibility in how they spend federal funding for children in foster care, as part of an experiment by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The quality outcomes under study include number of days spent in foster care, days a child waits before he or she is adopted, and cases of recurrent maltreatment. HHS uses these factors to measure the quality of child welfare programs, and, says Mangold, all of them are “directly related to mental health challenges for kids in foster care.”

Already, Mangold says, data analysis has shown that in counties with local tax levies dedicated to child welfare, children in the foster care system experience better quality outcomes. The effect is magnified in counties that also received HHS allocations under the federal Title IV-E waiver program, which gives counties greater flexibility in spending that funding than HHS normally grants. So, Mangold says, in counties with both local and HHS flexible funding, children waited less than a year, on average, for adoption; in counties with just one form of flexible funding, they waited three years; and in counties without flexible funding, they waited over six years.

“Whatever we measured with [flexible funding] as a variable, we found these stunning outcomes,” Mangold says. “The question now is, what can we learn from these correlations? Why does the funding source make any difference?”

To tease out the reason that flexible funding streams lead to better outcomes for children in foster care, investigators will survey the child welfare directors of all Ohio counties, then conduct in-depth interviews with 30 randomly selected directors.

The goal of the study, Mangold says, is not to persuade other counties or states to pass new taxes dedicated to child welfare, but rather that all levels of government will use the results to revise the requirements they impose on how child welfare funding is used – ensuring that it most effectively benefits young people.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant, she says, not only covers the cost of the research, but includes consultation on its methodology and how to disseminate its results in the community of child welfare scholars and advocates.

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.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB’s more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.

A unique approach to Environmental Law-Pollution Control in the classroom

Richard J. Lippes ’69

Tom Tyler

Adam Walters

In spring 2012, SUNY Buffalo Law School will implement a unique approach to teaching about Environmental Law-Pollution Control as well as provide students with access to multiple experts and practical outlooks. Environmental Law Program Director Kim Diana Connolly has announced that three experts in the field, Richard J. Lippes ’69 of Richard J. Lippes & Associates, Tom Tyler of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters, in Washington, DC, and Adam Walters of Phillips Lytle LLP will bring their extensive environmental law experience to the classroom.

The three adjuncts will each lead a three-week “unit” of the class, covering such topics as the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Clean Air Act, and the Toxic Substances Control Act. Professor Connolly will be the lead instructor, teaching a unit herself and working with each of the adjuncts to prepare their units and assessments and coordinating every class.

The instructors will use their extensive practice experience to go beyond the typical class, exploring why each statute was written, how it has been implemented by the agencies, how it has been interpreted by courts, and how it works in actual practice. Students will learn about broader areas of authority under which agencies act (beyond just regulations and enforcement) and how the realities of clients and other stakeholders influence the application of laws. Students will do simulations and other practical exercises, and will be assessed at the end of each unit rather than through a final exam. Under Professor Connolly’s guidance, the students will also select a topic and write a brief white paper that will be posted on the Law School’s website.

Trial attorney Francis Letro will receive Law School’s highest honor Friday, Jan. 27 in NYC

Reservations for the New York City Alumni Luncheon can be made through the Law Alumni Office at (716) 645-2107 or online.

One of Buffalo’s best-known trial attorneys will be honored in January with SUNY Buffalo Law School’s most prestigious award.

Francis M. Letro ’79 will receive the Edwin F. Jaeckle Award on Jan. 27. The award, the highest honor the Law School and its Law Alumni Association can bestow, will be presented at the New York City Alumni Luncheon at the Union League Club, 38 E. 37th St. (corner of Park Avenue), in Manhattan. Named for Edwin F. Jaeckle ’15, the award is given annually to an individual who has distinguished himself or herself and has made significant contributions to the Law School and to the legal profession.

Previous recipients have included Hon. Charles S. Desmond, Hon. Matthew J. Jasen, Manly Fleischmann, Jacob D. Hyman, Hon. M. Dolores Denman, William R. Greiner and the 2011 honoree, Thomas E. Black Jr. ’79.

“Fran Letro has been instrumental in the successes our school has achieved in recent years,” said Law School Dean Makau W. Mutua. “SUNY Buffalo Law School has no better friend, and I count Fran among those whose opinions and wise counsel I value most highly. I am delighted that we are able to recognize his achievements and his integrity with this Jaeckle Award.”

Letro, who limits his practice to personal injury cases, is a native of Olean and earned his undergraduate degree from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He has held leadership positions in many professional organizations on the national, state and local levels, and for 20 years has been a board member of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association. He is also an active member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, and the Bar Associations of Erie, Cattaraugus, and Allegany counties.

He is a frequent lecturer for national, state and local bar associations, speaking to lawyers and judges about trial practice and procedure, and at continuing legal education seminars and practice skills programs across New York State. He has served as a member of several statewide and local judicial screening panels for sitting judges.

Letro was just 7 when his father, a foreman for the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad, lost a leg in a railway accident. Seeing his family devastated by the tragedy, the elder Letro retained an attorney who secured a settlement. “I remember my father’s enormous respect, admiration and gratitude for the lawyer who represented him,” Francis Letro recalled. That experience inspired him to pursue a career in law, so that he could advocate for victims of similar misfortunes.

At SUNY Buffalo Law School, Letro has been a longtime member of the Dean’s Advisory Council – a panel of distinguished practitioners who provide important input into curriculum and other academic policy decisions – and now serves as the group’s vice chair. The Law School’s first-floor working courtroom is named in his honor, in recognition of a $1 million gift in 2002 from Letro and his wife, Cindy Abbott Letro, in support of the school’s mission. He is also a past recipient of the SUNY Buffalo Law Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Letro’s philanthropy and other support has also extended to such community mainstays as Erie County Medical Center, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo State College, the Burchfield Penney Art Center, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Darwin Martin House Restoration Project, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Boy Scouts.

Building a bridge to practice

January is the season for one of SUNY Buffalo Law School’s most distinctive traditions, the intensive learning experiences known as bridge courses.

Ranging from one to three credits, students can choose from among 39 courses offered from start to finish in January, with some taking as many as three bridge courses. Some seize the opportunity to explore an area of the law that intrigues them; others pile on the credits to lighten their course load during the coming spring semester. In every case, though, the experience is one that broadens students’ legal horizons and imparts some of the essential skills of legal practice.

“I don’t know of any other school that does what we do, which is to open a distinct space in the curriculum that serves as a showcase for our adjunct faculty, our judges and our practitioners,” says SUNY Distinguished Professor James A. Gardner, vice dean for academic affairs. “Other schools have adjunct-taught courses, and often those courses are skills-oriented or highly focused as ours are, but the idea of having a dedicated portion of the year devoted to this is unique to us.”

In keeping with the Law School’s emphasis on imparting practical legal skills, many of the bridge-term courses address those skills directly, such as learning how to choose a jury or how to take a deposition. “But all of them are skills courses in the sense that they provide a close and focused and practice-oriented look at a very narrow area of law,” Gardner says. “That’s distinct from the normal classroom experience. Even a focused course in Law School tends to be a survey course. This is sort of an apprentice’s-eye view of what practice is like.”

Most bridge courses at SUNY Buffalo Law are taught by alumni and other practitioners – attorneys, judges and government officials among them – supplemented by Law School faculty. Often, teaching a bridge course is a chance for alumni to reconnect with the school and share with law students some of their hard-won expertise in their area of specialization.

The courses include opportunities for clinical experience and judicial clerkships in Social Security disability law and habeas corpus law, and such emerging practice areas as Alternative Dispute Resolution and sexual harassment mediation.

Among the highlights of the bridge-term courses:

• A course on Buffalo’s financial control board looks at “the amenability of economic and fiscal problems such as those of the city to resolution by subordination of democratic politics to control by a board of appointed experts.” The course examines the basis in the state Constitution for establishing the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority, whose chair is former Law School Dean R. Nils Olsen, and looks at the political context in which the board was created. It’s taught by James Magavern ’59 and Richard Tobe ’74, who was recently appointed deputy Erie County executive.
• Longtime City Court Judge Robert T. Russell’s bridge-term course looks at Housing Court and its relationship with Housing and Landlord-Tenant Court. The course explores housing and health code violations, property nuisance laws, the “Bawdy House Statute,” the doctrine of the “Warranty of Habitability,” demolitions and other issues.
• Students in a course taught by Helen Drew ’88, Professional Sports Contract Negotiation & Arbitration, get hands-on experience in the legal and practical skills necessary to negotiate and arbitrate a professional sports employment contract. The class will be divided into two-person teams representing management and players, and each team will research, prepare and actively negotiate and arbitrate a professional athlete’s contract.
• A bridge-term course in bankruptcy practice covers issues in consumer bankruptcy, a useful offering because most Law School courses address corporate, rather than consumer, bankruptcy. Taught by Morris L. Horwitz ’74, the course follows the handling of a consumer bankruptcy from client intake, through the analysis of assets and liabilities, choice of chapter (7 or 13), preparation of the petition and schedules, electronic filing, court proceedings and post-petition challenges.

Adjunct Professor Sharon Stern Gerstman to receive the American Bar Foundation’s Fellows Award

The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation has awarded SUNY Buffalo Law School Adjunct Professor Sharon Stern Gerstman the 2011 Outstanding State Chair Award. Also receiving this year’s award is Gerstman’s Co-Chair, Michael H. Byowitz of Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz.

The Fellows Award is given annually to a State Chair (or State Co-Chairs) of The Fellows who has demonstrated a dedication to the work of the Foundation and the mission of The Fellows through exceptional efforts on behalf of The Fellows at the state level. The award will be presented at The Fellows’ 56th Annual Awards Banquet on Saturday, February 4, 2012, at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. [Read more about the Fellows Award]

Gerstman has taught New York Practice at SUNY Buffalo Law School since 1987 and is currently of counsel to Magavern Magavern Grimm LLP. Previously she was employed by New York Supreme Court as a court attorney/referee in Niagara County, and as principal law clerk to Hon. Joseph D. Mintz.