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

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/

UB Law School to examine lessons from Truth and Reconciliation Commissions

The University at Buffalo Law School will host an international conference “Implementing Truth and Reconciliation: Comparative Lessons for Korea” Monday, Oct. 24, bringing together experts from around the globe to reflect on national experiences of the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions.

Sponsored by the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, the Asian Studies Program, and the Buffalo Human Rights Center, the conference will offer lessons on the recently concluded TRC process in South Korea.

Two morning panels will be open to the public: “The Korean TRC Experience: Critical Reflections Toward the Future” from 9:15-11:00 a.m.; and “Implementing Truth and Reconciliation: Lessons from Peru, Cambodia and South Africa” from 11:15 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Both panel discussions will be held in the Cellino and Barnes Conference Center, Room 509, O’Brian Hall, North Campus. Those wishing to attend the public panels should register at BaldyRSVP@buffalo.edu. For more details and the full lineup of presenters, visit the conference website: law.buffalo.edu/baldycenter/KoreanTruthReconciliation/.

The TRC Korea officially closed its doors at the end of 2010 after more than four years of work, during which time it investigated approximately 10,000 reported cases of human rights violations taking place between 1910 and 1993. Much work lies ahead, however, in publicizing and implementing the Commission’s findings and recommendations.

There is much to learn from the comparative experiences of the more than 30 other TRCs that have undertaken work in countries around the world. Such commissions have taken a diversity of forms, responded to distinct kinds of violence over distinct periods of time, and — given the diversity of approaches taken — had a wide variety of success rates with the implementation of their final recommendations.

Experts in transitional justice and TRC processes in Peru, South Africa and Cambodia will seek to document the reasons behind these relative success rates. They will explain the distinct approaches taken to implementation, the web of actors involved in the implementation process, and the lessons learned about what worked, what did not work, and how, looking back, the implementation process might have been restructured to achieve better results.

Conference addresses electoral redistricting

A major—and timely—conference at UB Law School on Oct. 14 and 15 will address a contentious aspect of the democratic process: redistricting, the periodic redrawing of election-district boundaries in accordance with the constitutional mandate of “one person, one vote.”

The conference, “Major Developments in Redistricting,” will bring together practitioners, public-interest lawyers, democracy advocacy groups and academics to discuss what conference organizer Michael Halberstam, associate professor of law, calls “a fundamental part of our democratic process.”

Sponsored by the Law School’s Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy, it will be held in 509 O’Brian Hall, North Campus.

“Redistricting is about the legitimacy of elections and the legitimacy of the governing body,” says Halberstam, who is organizing the conference with James A. Gardner, SUNY Distinguished Professor and vice dean, and Rick Su, associate professor. “The fact that the process often takes place behind closed doors raises questions about the legitimacy of the body that is elected. At a time when people are so disaffected by politics and so disaffected by government, it’s no time to further delegitimize the process.”

Congressional redistricting gets the most media attention because it potentially can change the balance of power in the House of Representatives. But this conference concentrates on local redistricting, particularly in New York State’s counties, cities and other local jurisdictions.

“There’s no standard for this,” Halberstam says. “The timing is different in every locality, the procedures are different. There’s no one really paying attention to this in any focused way.”

He explains that past controversies about the dilution of the minority vote in redistricting have given way to broader concerns about a lack of transparency in the process. Alert voters, he says, are fed up with legislators arranging their own job security by drawing politically “safe” districts for themselves.

“It’s unrealistic to think that the political market is going to regulate itself, any more than commercial markets can regulate themselves,” he says. “The problem is that information isn’t evenly distributed and readily available. What we currently have is the worst of all possible worlds—to have legislators choose their own seats.”

In addition to the three UB Law organizers, presenters at the conference will include faculty members from the Duke, Harvard, University of Michigan and University of Texas law schools and George Mason and Fordham universities; representatives of the Pew Trust, the Brennan Center and the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project; and attorneys working in New York, Washington, D.C., and Texas.

For his part, Halberstam will present his proposal to establish a redistricting clearinghouse that would gather, store and publicize information for all local redistrictings in New York State in an Internet-accessible database. “A lot of people involved in the process aren’t aware of the rules,” Halberstam says. “The goal is to provide for each local redistricting the particular laws that apply there.

“My hope is to create a mechanism of monitoring by disclosure. You let the local institutions do what they want to do, but you force them to provide information to a central organization.”
Such a clearinghouse, he says, could identify a set of best-practices standards for local redistricting, then call out localities that fail to implement those practices—a watchdog function pushing lawmakers toward making the redistricting process fairer and more open to public scrutiny.

In addition, the conference will feature a demonstration workshop of publicly available software that enables democracy advocates to challenge redistricting decisions based on demographic data. The workshop will be co-sponsored by the Buffalo Partnership for the Public Good. Like all conference events, it is open to the public.

Those wishing to attend the conference should register at BaldyRSVP@buffalo.edu. For more details and the full lineup of presenters, visit the conference website.

Mitchell lecture recalls historic Nuremberg speech

Release Date: August 25, 2011

Tuesday Oct. 4, 2011
2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
University at Buffalo Law School
Room 106, John Lord O’Brian Hall

Reception to follow
Free and open to the public

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• Read Justice Jackson’s 1946 address
• Speaker Biographies
• Photo Archive
• Local Editorial Coverage,
  October 5, 1946
• Past Mitchell Lecturers

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Media & questions, contact:

Ilene Fleischmann,
Public Relations & Communications
fleisch@buffalo.edu
716-645-7347

The 2011 edition of the James McCormick Mitchell Lecture revisits a significant historical moment for UB and the world – one that has been largely overlooked.

The event on Tuesday, Oct. 4, is an occasion to examine a major address by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, given at the University of Buffalo centennial exactly 65 years before. Jackson, who had taken a leave of absence from the high court to serve as the chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes trial in occupied Germany that followed the Nazis’ surrender in World War II, spoke at UB immediately after he returned from those historic trial in 1946. His speech touched on timeless themes: how a “warlike spirit” can overcome a nation; the quest for nations to work cooperatively in the cause of peace; the interrelationship of war and dictatorship; and the supremacy of law over the lawless forces of war and persecution.

According to Professor Alfred S. Konefsky, a legal historian at UB Law, “It is an extraordinary speech, made a matter of days after Jackson returned from Germany to the United States. It has been largely forgotten, and we hope the Mitchell Lecture will reintroduce his powerful speech into historical memory.”

Three legal scholars will discuss aspects of Jackson’s 1946 address, placing the speech in historical context and discussing its enduring implications. The Mitchell Lecturers are:

– John Q. Barrett, professor of law at St. John’s University in New York City and a board member at the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown, N.Y., who will discuss “Bringing Nuremberg Home: Justice Jackson’s Path Back to Buffalo, Oct. 4, 1946.” Barrett is writing a biography of Justice Jackson.

– Eric L. Muller, professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law and a legal historian with special interest in the Japanese internment cases during the World War II era, who will discuss “Nazis, Americans and the Law as a ‘Peace Profession.’”

– Mary L. Dudziak, the Judge Edward J. and Ruey L. Guirado Professor of Law, History and Political Science at the University of Southern California, currently John Hope Franklin Visiting Professor of American Legal History at Duke Law School, who will speak on “Rumors of War.”

The event marks a second anniversary as well: the 60th year of the Mitchell Lecture series, whose first installment in 1951 also featured Justice Jackson, speaking on “Wartime Security and Liberty Under Law.”

Makau Mutua, dean of the UB Law School, says it is “exciting for our students and alumni as well as our faculty to have a chance to explore these timely yet historic topics with three prominent legal scholars here on the UB campus.”

Volunteer Day at UB Law School

Here is a great opportunity to interact with the student body and volunteer with fellow faculty and staff members – all before the official first day of classes!

Please join the Law School and SBA on Wednesday, August 31st at 8:30 a.m. Volunteers should meet in the lobby of O’Brian Hall for registration and a breakfast sponsored by the Buffalo Public Interest Program (BPILP). Volunteers are reminded that this event will go on rain or shine, so please dress accordingly and in clothes that you wouldn’t mind getting a little dirty in. (Per the Dean’s Office, please note you will not need to take vacation time to participate, but please check with your supervisor as to ensure proper staffing needs in your office.)

Transportation: Transportation will be provided to and from the locations, but please feel free to take your own transportation (and carpool)! Each site will open up at 9:00 a.m. and run until 12:00 p.m.

Contact: If interested, contact Adam Lynch ’13 at adamlync@buffalo.edu with your contact information and first and second choice of volunteer sites (see below), as space is limited. You can also register on Facebook.

We hope you can join us!

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The Locations/Projects:

Buffalo ReUse: The ReSource
298 Northampton Street and 2016 Genesee Street
Buffalo, New York 14208

This location will need 50 volunteers, 25 for each location. This site’s activity will be centered on breaking down materials, stocking and cleaning the store, and helping out in the office. In addition to wearing clothes that you wouldn’t mind getting dirty, I would also like to remind all volunteers to wear pants and shoes. Also, here is a link to a waiver (PDF) that you need to sign and bring with you to Buffalo ReUse.

Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy: Delaware Park Cleanup
Lincoln Parkway (Behind Albright-Knox Art Gallery)
Buffalo, New York 14222

This site’s activity will be centered on cleaning up the area around Hoyt Lake and Rumsey Woods. No open toed shoes, please.

Weinberg Campus
2700 North Forest Road
Getzville, New York 14068

Weinberg needs approximately 15 volunteers to interact and play games (ex. cards) with the residents.

The Ronald McDonald House
780 West Ferry Street
Buffalo, New York 14222

This site needs 10 volunteers to help out with general landscaping and mulching. Volunteers are advised to wear sneakers/work boots and clothes to get dirty in.

UB Law School conference explores legacy of the Attica uprising

Forty years ago, the deadliest prisoner rebellion in U.S. history occurred. Next month, a major conference will bring together prisoner advocates, legislators, policymakers, corrections professionals, activists, and people who were on the front lines of the conflict, on both sides.

The conference, called “40 Years After the Attica Uprising: Looking Back, Moving Forward” is sponsored by the University at Buffalo Law School and its Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy. Admission is free (with pre-registration) and open to the public, with free parking in university lots.

The two-day event marks the anniversary of the uprising at Attica State Prison, about 40 miles east of Buffalo, that brought the world’s attention to long-festering problems in the U.S. prison system. The Attica Uprising began on Sept. 9, 1971, and ended four days later when then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller ordered state troopers to storm and retake the prison from the inmates who had taken control. Twenty-nine prisoners and eleven security and civilian staff died.

To open the conference, the documentary “Ghosts of Attica” will be shown at the Burchfield Penny Art Center (Buffalo State College) on Sunday evening, September 11. Over the next two days, Sept. 12-13, conference events will be held on UB’s North and South campuses and at a Downtown Buffalo church. The schedule of events is posted on the conference website: www.law.buffalo.edu/attica40.asp.

“It’s about healing, in part,” says UB Law Professor Teresa A. Miller, conference organizer. “This is the last decade in which these people are going to be able to sit down together and reflect upon Attica’s turbulent past. This conference is unique in that it creates a dialog between stakeholders with diverse ideological perspectives on the Attica Uprising. For the Buffalo Community, this is one of the last opportunities to hear firsthand from people who were there.”

In addition to looking back at the uprising, the conference will feature several influential policymakers, including NY State Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubrey, chair of the Committee on Corrections and a vocal advocate for prison reform. Miller says it comes at a time when the corrections industry, an entrenched part of the state’s and the nation’s economy, is undergoing reconsideration.

“We run a very expensive prison system. New York is leading the country in looking at the wisdom of that and evaluating alternatives,” Miller says. “We’re at a point at which we need to reform, and consider downsizing, a system that has just grown too large. As a parent, you spank your child as a last resort, after nothing else has changed their behavior. That needs to be the way we approach corrections as well, with incarceration as a last resort. Growing the prison system and locking people up as a job creation strategy is morally wrong, economically inefficient, and counterproductive.”

The conference is an occasion to re-examine the work of corrections officers as well; according to Miller, they suffer stress-related illnesses at rates far greater than that of the general population, as well as disproportionate rates of drug abuse, domestic violence and other social maladies. And they die young – at age 58 on average, she says. “Day after day, it’s all negative,” she says of the job. “It takes a toll.”

Keynote speakers for the conference include Brian Fischer, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. In addition to academic researchers, presenters also include:

• Malcolm Bell, a former special assistant attorney general who helped lead the investigation into the uprising and the state response.
• Arthur O. Eve, a negotiator and observer in 1971 and a former New York State assemblyman.
• Herman Schwartz, also an observer, and a UB Law professor in 1971.
• Michael Smith, a correctional officer who was held hostage and wounded during the retaking of the prison.

Jim Conway, who recently retired as the prison’s superintendent.

UB Law partners with other stakeholders to hold medical-legal partnership event

Seeking to help navigate the gap between law, health care and community services for low-income patients and their hospitals, a consortium of WNY schools and non-profit agencies is banding together to bring the Medical Legal Partnership (MLP) to Buffalo, where they will hold their first WNY conference on June 9 from 1:00 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Hospice Buffalo, 225 Como Park Blvd., Cheektowaga, NY.

Two free Continuing Legal Education credits will be available for attorneys who attend.

The MLP planning committee is comprised of the University at Buffalo Law School, Neighborhood Legal Services, the UB School of Social Work, the UB Civic Engagement and Public Policy Strategic Strength Office, Hospice Buffalo, the Evans-Devereux Memorial Fund and others.

Elsewhere in the nation, MLPs help improve access to health care and health care outcomes for underserved populations. For example, a family forced, by poverty or other circumstances, to choose between food and heat in the winter months is unlikely to be successfully treated with a prescription or a vaccination, says UB Law Professor Kim Diana Connolly, Director of Clinical Legal Education and moderator for the conference.

“Medical-legal partnerships integrate lawyers as a vital component of the healthcare team. The concept is to transform institutions and influence policy change to positively influence non-medical determinants of health.

“A lack of food, utilities, child support, mold removal and other basic life needs can prevent optimum health. Lawyers and other legal professionals can support those in the health care profession to change lives.

Presenters will include:

• Dr. Barry Zuckerman, the Founder National Center for Medical Legal Partnerships, (and also the Chair of the Department of Pediatrics, Boston Medical Center, Joel and Barbara Professor of Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine)
• Dr. Steven Blatt, M.D., from the Department of Pediatrics, SUNY Upstate Medical Center
• Randye Retkin, Esq., Director, LegalHealth and the New York Legal Assistance Group
• Dr. Kathleen Grimm, M.D., University Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Adolescent Division of Women & Children’s Hospital
• Professor Kim Diana Connolly, Director of Clinical Legal Education, University at Buffalo Law School

Registration information for the conference is available at www.nls.org.

The University at Buffalo Law School will offer 2.0 non-transitional CLE credits in the area of Skills for this event. The 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. For further information on UB’s CLE policy, contact Lisa Mueller at 645-3176.

Cellino and Barnes Conference Center to be dedicated at UB Law School

Two well-known names in the Buffalo legal community will find a permanent home in the University at Buffalo Law School when the school’s Cellino and Barnes Conference Center is dedicated on May 26.

The naming of the Law School’s fifth-floor conference center honors Ross M. Cellino Jr. ’82 and Stephen E. Barnes ’83. Their $1 million gift in 2009, one of the largest cash gifts UB Law has received, is being invested in student scholarships, teaching technologies and improved student services.

The conference center, one of the most elegant and widely used facilities in John Lord O’Brian Hall, hosts a wide variety of academic and legal conferences, seminars and continuing legal education courses. The May 26 dedication ceremony, which begins at 5:30 p.m., will feature remarks by, among others, Law School Dean Makau W. Mutua and the honorees.

The University at Buffalo Council, in its conference center naming proclamation, described Cellino and Barnes, shareholders in the Buffalo-based law firm Cellino & Barnes, P.C., as “highly accomplished, successful, civic-minded attorneys who have been good friends and dedicated alumni of UB Law School.”

Ross Cellino is serving a three-year term as a UB Law School Alumni Association director and actively participates in the school’s mentoring program. Steve Barnes, a former Marine Corps officer and Gulf War veteran, serves regularly as a judge for moot court competitions and for the oral arguments program for first-year students.

“We made this gift because we are impressed with Dean Mutua and his vision for the school. It’s easy to be loyal to UB Law because it was good to us,” the partners said. Added Barnes: “The dean has a real vision for the school and the wherewithal to make it happen. The thing that drove our final decision was his vision to propel UB Law School into a different category.”

Said Dean Mutua, who has set a goal of placing UB Law among the top 50 law schools in the nation: “This amazing act of philanthropy by Ross and Steve reflects a belief by two successful alumni that the Law School is headed in the right direction. It provides a wonderful resource to help us accomplish our vision of academic excellence and our bold aspirations for the future.”

The Cellino & Barnes firm, with 36 attorneys in six offices across New York State, has obtained over $1 billion in settlements and verdicts for clients and their families. The firm has been selected by U.S. News and World Report to the first tier of Best Law Firms in the United States for personal injury and litigation.

The firm is also well-known for its philanthropy. It has contributed over $600,000 in scholarships to deserving college students and has donated hundreds of thousands of additional dollars to more than 50 other charities.

Since its founding in 1887, the University at 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 UB 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.

Two-day UB Law School Conference Explores European Union’s Continuing Challenges

The ongoing challenge of uniting 27 nations, both politically and socially, into a cohesive European Union is the subject of a major interdisciplinary conference April 28 and 29 at the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy at the University at Buffalo Law School.

The conference is called “Realizing Europe: The Lisbon Treaty in Perspective.” Presenters will address aspects of the 2009 treaty that significantly changes the governance of the EU, an international organization that encompasses over 500 million citizens of Europe.

The conference will cover issues of EU citizenship, immigration, education, science and technology, law, cultural policy and federalism. It includes a reception during which Law School Dean Makau W. Mutua will greet those in attendance.

UB’s “Realizing Europe” conference is the first major presentation of the university’s new Center for European Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. The center is led by director and anthropology professor Deborah Reed-Danahay, principal organizer of the conference. Also assisting in the conference are UB Law associate professor Michael Halberstam and assistant professor of anthropology Vasiliki Neofotistos.

“We wanted to start a conversation both here at the university and with the wider Buffalo-Niagara community about issues related to the future of Europe and its political, legal, economic and social implications,” says Reed-Danahay, a political and legal anthropologist. “The EU is a project that is still in process and still being realized.”

The conference addresses both the EU’s evolving political organization and the organization’s “social project.” This project encourages citizens of its member nations to think of themselves broadly as Europeans, all of whom share a common identity with others living in Europe. Symbols such as the EU flag and anthem are meant to foster this sense of belonging. Reed-Danahay has done research in French primary schools on efforts to guide young pupils to buy into the idea that they are Europeans, not just French citizens.

“For anyone engaged in transactions, international trade or international institutions, EU law is important,” says Halberstam. “Increasingly, EU law is becoming part of the Law School curriculum.”

EU law is a separate field from international law, Halberstam says. “It can have a great impact on corporate transactions,” he says. “It’s a very complicated field, given that EU law is superimposed and interacts with different national legal regimes, both civil law regimes and common law regimes.”

In addition to the organizers, presenters at the conference include:

• Rodolphe Gasché, Distinguished Professor and Eugenio Donato Chair of Comparative Literature at UB.
• Daniel Halberstam, Eric Stein Collegiate Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School.
• Alexander Somek, Charles E. Floete Chair in Law at University of Iowa College of Law.
• Hans de Wit, Professor of Internationalization at the School of Economics and Management of the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, University of Applied Sciences.
• Catherine Neveu, director of research at the Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, in Paris.
• Aires Soares, Minister-Counselor and Head of Science, Technology and Education for the European Union Delegation in Washington, D.C.
• Anne-Marie Thiesse, director of research at the Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, in Paris.
• Wolfgang Wölck, Emeritus Distinguished Service Professor of Linguistics at UB.

Full information about the conference is available at www.law.buffalo.edu/baldycenter/RealizingEurope.

The Center for European Studies is devoted to research and intellectual exchange among faculty and students on political, cultural and social transformations of contemporary Europe as well as Europe’s multiple historical traditions and close connections to North America. The center encourages the creation of networks across disciplinary and geographic boundaries. It encourages collaboration with other area universities and colleges, and develops partnerships with both European and North American programs in European studies. The University at Buffalo is well poised to be the home of CEUS, given the international spirit of Buffalo – a city with a rich history of European immigration, and located at the border of Ontario, Canada.

Since its founding in 1887, the University at 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 UB 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.