Spring 2008 Contents

Class Action, UB Law Class Notes

KEEP IN TOUCH WITH YOUR FORMER CLASSMATES, PROFESSORS AND FRIENDS: Send us your personal and professional news, including marriages, births and deaths. [more...]

We Need Your Help!
The UB Law Career Services Office is updating Class of 2007 graduate information and we are seeking employment information on the following grads (please see the list below.) We are continuing to follow up with all these grads in many, many different ways, but in they remain unreachable or anonymous, we must seek information from many sources. If you have any ideas about the location of these individuals, especially where they are working (anywhere), please contact us. Any clue--no matter how small--will be a help.

LAW SCHOOL REPORT

Students of Color Dinner Honors Grads-To-Be and Community Leaders: "Lifting as We Climb" was the theme for the 19th annual Students of Color Dinner, and with everything from music to dance to candlelight, the event lifted spirits as well as aspirations. The dinner, held April 3 in the Buffalo Niagara Marriott, celebrates the achievements of the Law School's minority students and honors the work of community leaders. It is hosted jointly by the Black Law Students Association, the Latin American Law Students Association and the Asian American Law Students Association. Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, in his first Law School-related appearance, gave opening remarks. Hon. Samuel L. Green '67, senior associate justice of the State Supreme Court's Appellate Division, 4th Department, gave the keynote address. [more...]

A Light in the Atticus: Revisiting the heroic lawyer of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee's beloved novel and the classic 1962 film starring Gregory Peck, got the full legal review Feb. 15 in front of an audience at Buffalo's Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Three UB Law School academics were part of a panel discussing the judicial aspects of Mockingbird, whose key conflict revolves around the defense by principled lawyer Atticus Finch of a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman in 1935 Alabama. [more...]

Students Apply Legal Skills in New Orleans: As the physical rebuilding of New Orleans progresses, the city's legal system is still in the recovery stages. Two and a half years after Hurricane Katrina hit, its victims continue to need legal assistance on civil matters and criminal charges. University at Buffalo Law School students spent one week last month aiding New Orleans residents with legal concerns. This is the first time a UB Law midsemester "bridge course" has involved national disaster recovery efforts. "I should have known about all the legal backlog of work that needs to be done so people can rebuild their homes and reacquire their land," said UB Law third-year student Elliot Kowalski, who was one of 29 students who participated in the volunteer work. [more...]

Engel and Students Reflect on a Bridge-Course Adventure in Thailand: UB Law students are accustomed to their professors' taking them to new worlds of thought. In one January-term bridge course, though, 11 second- and third-year students found themselves immersed in a legal system half a world away. Professor David Engel's course on The Legal Culture of Thailand was an adventure in cultural awareness as well as legal training. Engel and his wife, Jaruwan, served as translators and guides as the group took up residence at Chiang Mai University, more than 400 miles north of Bangkok. [more...]

Celebrating Present and Future at the Buffalo Law Review Dinner: A Buffalo Law Review year that has looked to the journal's future as well as its present was toasted at the 19th annual Buffalo Law Review Dinner, held April 10 at the Buffalo Club. The journal, UB Law School's premier legal publication, released five issues during the academic year, including a special commentary devoted to the Dalai Lama's 2006 visit to the University and the 2007 James McCormick Mitchell Lecture Issue. The journal also published articles dealing with international law, tax, religion and law, conflict resolution, corporate law, regionalism and family law. But the year was especially marked by administrative initiatives that should ensure the Law Review's strength and quality well into the future. Under editor in chief Amy C. Frisch, the journal created an independent Alumni Board of Consultants to advise editors on short- and long-term development strategies. The goal of these efforts is to strengthen membership in the organization, increase the quality and frequency of publication, and achieve national visibility for the Law Review. [more...]

FACULTY

Multi-Volume Legal History Project Includes Three Major Contributors from UB Law: Professors Konefsky, Mensch and Schlegel: Three professors – one per volume – are represented in a project its publisher calls "the most comprehensive and authoritative account possible of the history of American law." The massive three-volume Cambridge History of Law in America features essays by Alfred Konefsky, University at Buffalo Distinguished Professor; Elizabeth Mensch, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor; and John Henry Schlegel, Roger and Karen Jones Faculty Scholar and Professor. They are among sixty legal historians writing in their areas of expertise, in a publication that seeks to summarize and synthesize the history of law in America. [more...]

Outsourcing Sacrifice: Should Americans Honor the Soldier for Hire?: America's increasing use of private military contractors in Iraq and other international battlefields is changing the traditional emotional and psychological relationships between U.S. citizens and those who fight for their country, a UB Law School professor says. Mateo Taussig-Rubbo examines whether these military contractors --sometimes called soldiers for hire or mercenaries -- should be embraced as heroes and given the same honors as those who serve in conventional armed forces. Or should they occupy a more distant position from what the UB professor calls our country's "tradition of sacrifice?" [more...]

ALUMNI

Alumni Bring the Voice of Experience to Washington Day: The dream of practicing law in Washington, D.C., came to UB Law School on March 28 with a first-of-its-kind Washington Day event. Sponsored by the Office of Career Services, the event brought students – both those on the cusp of beginning their legal careers and those pondering what specialization they should pursue in Law School – face to face with a wide range of alumni who work in the nation's capital. In addition to professional advice, the conversations ran to such practicalities as housing, transportation and social life. [more...]

WE NEED YOUR HELP

FYI: This survey information directly affects our US News and other rankings, as 3/4 of all "unknown" grads are counted as unemployed! In the past, we have not had to report more than 2 or 3 unknowns, and that is in large part due to your input, so thank you in advance!

Jesse Baco
Matthew Bemben
Jamie Carter
Hee Chung Choi
Kelli Fowler
David Hoffman
Alan Kresse
Jonathan Leahy
Candyce McCarley
Brian McGuire
Heather Nikiel
Peter Parry
Michael Quinn
Karen Riedesel
Adam Rissew
Benjamin Watkins
Lauren Weiss
Lauren Williamson
Han-Kuo Yang

Contact information is great, but an "I think they're are working at..." is even better! Please send information to: