HIGH HONORS

NYS Court of Appeals bench witness Alumni Association awards

It was in the presence of some distinguished witnesses that the UB Law Alumni Association held its 43rd annual meeting and dinner on April 14. The seven-member New York State Court of Appeals – which had met in session in downtown Buffalo that day – gathered with alumni, friends and honorees for a celebration of the Law School’s best and brightest.

Distinguished Alumni Awards for 2005 were presented to three honorees. An additional highlight was the presentation of the Hon. M. Dolores Denman Scholarship Award by the late Justice Denman’s best friend, Hon. Judith S. Kaye.

Distinguished Alumni Awards were presented to:

Diane F. Bosse ’76, for her commitment to public service. A partner in the Buffalo law firm Volgenau & Bosse, the honoree serves as chair of the New York State Board of Law Examiners, which is responsible for preparing, administering and grading the state bar exam. She is also secretary of the National Conference of Bar Examiners, for which she chairs the Multistate Performance Test. She is also a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at UB Law School.

In her remarks, Bosse spoke of the value of upholding the honor and standards of “the profession I love so much.”

“I learned at UB Law School, a place I love and a place that still has a homelike quality to me, that the law is a profession of shared values, and that among the values we share as lawyers is a commitment to the delivery of competent and effective legal services to trusting clients,” she said.

She accepted the award in memory of Richard Manz ’54, legal assistant to the Board of Law Examiners until his sudden death in March, calling him “my mentor, my colleague and my cherished friend.”

David R. Pfalzgraf ’68, for his many contributions to the betterment of the community. Pfalzgraf is of counsel to the Cheektowaga, N.Y., firm Pfalzgraf Beinhauer & Menzies, where he focuses his practice on elder law. He is highly regarded for helping to educate the legal profession about alcoholism, chemical dependency, stress, depression and other mental health problems, and has helped numerous bar associations and lawyer assistance programs with programs to address such problems, always with the emphasis on compassion and the goal of recovery.

Pfalzgraf recently was named chair of the New York Lawyer Assistance Trust, which brings resources and awareness to the prevention and treatment of alcohol and substance abuse among lawyers, judges, law faculty and students. A past president of the Erie County Bar Foundation, he was named “Lawyer of the Year” by the Bar Association of Erie County in 2002.

In accepting the award, Pfalzgraf noted that the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous were attorneys; thus “lawyers were at the root of the most successful recovery program in the world.” This is fitting, he said, because whereas the alcoholism rate stands at about 10 percent of the general drinking population, the incidence of alcoholism may be as high as 18 percent among lawyers.

But, he said, “there is great hope, and there is no such thing as a hopeless case. I can report to you tonight that never have there been more state and local bar programs, financial resources or committed recovering lawyers devoted to lawyers-helping-lawyers activities than there are today.”

Hon. Judith S. Kaye, for outstanding service to the University and community by a non-alumnus. As chief judge of the New York State Court of Appeals – the first woman to hold that office – Kaye oversees the state’s vast and complex court system. Her tenure has been marked by far-reaching efforts to improve judicial administration. She also has published widely on issues such as legal process, state constitutional law, women in the law, professional ethics and problem-solving courts. Her bachelor of laws degree is from New York University School of Law, cum laude, in 1962.

“I am going to claim an additional privilege as a recipient of this award, and that is to claim myself as an alumnus of this law school,” Kaye said.

Her remarks then turned to her late friend, the first woman to be named presiding justice of the New York State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division. Justice Denman, a member of the Class of ’65, had a career “marked by mentoring and helping others while insisting on the highest and best of our noble profession,” Kaye said. “Always Dolores Denman was a commanding presence. She was a person who commanded respect and gave meaning to the ideal of justice.”

It was fitting, then, that Kaye then served as presenter for the Justice M. Dolores Denman Scholarship Award, given to a graduating senior at the Law School who is a single custodial parent, as Denman herself was. The award is intended to offset the costs of day care and other child-rearing expenses in connection with preparing for the bar exam.

Funded largely by an annual grant from the Western New York Chapter of the Women’s Bar Association, and selected by that group, the award this year was given to third-year UB Law student Tara A. Midlik of East Aurora, N.Y.