Award for student excellence honors Matthew Eldred '15

A third-year student whom one professor called “extremely serious, but also a genuinely nice person” has won the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence – the first SUNY Buffalo Law student ever to receive the honor.

Matthew A. Eldred, who has commuted daily to the Law School from his home near Rochester, accepted the award at a ceremony in Albany on April 2. The SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence recognizes outstanding students who have integrated academic excellence with other aspects of their lives. Just 15 UB students – 12 undergraduates and three graduate students – were honored.

The faculty and staff committee that selects the honorees look for high-achieving students who go beyond the academic grind and contribute to the campus and the community. Eldred’s 10-page nomination form included his work as executive editor of the Buffalo Law Review and of the Buffalo Environmental Law Journal, his service on the board of the Jessup International Moot Court Team and as a mentor to first-year law students, his volunteer work with the American Red Cross and regular donation of platelets, as well as his avocation hand-crafting fine wooden furniture and his reciprocal support for his wife, Nita. He also officiated at the weddings of three pairs of close friends. And all of this, he pointed out, was accomplished even with the two-hour round-trip commute eating up precious time.

Eldred, 29, graduated from Alfred State College and was working as a land surveyor, doing 3D mapping among other tasks, when he decided to make a career change. “I was working out of town a lot, and we wanted to start a family,” he says. “Law had never crossed my mind, but law school has been a great fit for me. It woke up parts of my mind that I had never really used before.”

He was nominated for the award by lecturer Patrick J. Long, who had Eldred in his first-year classes in legal analysis, writing and research. “He just has a very sharp intellect that cuts to the heart of any issue I presented,” Long says. “It’s analytical, but it’s also agile and flexible. His mind is a really interesting tool that he’s learned to use well. And he also had a curiosity to explore on his own issues that we raised in class.” For example, Long says, after a lecture on the rhetorical devices that President Lincoln used in the Gettysburg Address, Eldred researched the famous speech, read some books and articles about it, then went back to his professor for further discussion.

That dedication was also noted by the two professors who wrote letters of recommendation in support of Eldred’s award application.

Professor Charles Patrick Ewing, for whom Eldred served as a research assistant, called him “one of the brightest and most capable law students I have had the pleasure of teaching in almost 32 years at the Law School.” In addition, Ewing wrote, “He strives to use his intellect and academic achievements in ways that will ultimately lead to a fairer and more just society. He is amazingly humble, self-deprecating and concerned about others.”

And Professor Rick Su pointed to Eldred’s work with the Buffalo Law Review. “Matthew has developed, tested and implemented a number of innovative policies that I believe will greatly enhance the ranking and impact of the journal in the years to come,” Su wrote. “More than the ideas themselves, I marveled at how Matthew approached the challenges of the modern law journal with clarity, rigor and a long-term strategic outlook.”

Eldred’s own outlook – beyond Commencement and the bar exam – is to begin work as an associate with the Rochester law firm Harris Beach, where he worked as a summer associate last year.