Hearts Bloom at UB School of Law – Learning About Law & Love
Published April 27, 2023
It is springtime in Buffalo! That means the birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming, and we might only need to shovel snow once more before summer comes. But it also means we can walk around campus a lot easier, talking to peers and classmates and maybe even striking up an important conversation with someone who might end up being the one. That’s right! Did you know that plenty of people have found their match while attending UB School of Law? Well, we checked in with some of those couples to have them recount their meetings of law and love. Here are some of their stories.
A bold response kicked things off
For Kimberly (Copeland) Sheehan ’84 and Timothy Sheehan ’84, it was a bold response by Tim in their second-year Family Law class that ignited the spark. Tim was answering a question from Professor Isabel Marcus, and something about the directness of his response caught Kim’s attention. “I must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed that morning, and I ended up challenging the professor,” said Tim, a partner with Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP in White Plains, NY. “As it turned out, it paid dividends for me down the road.”
While he was tabling in the hallway for BRC, a bar review course provider, Kim—who’s now of counsel with Peirce & Salvato PLLC in White Plains—struck up a conversation. Tim later mentioned to his boss that Kim could be a customer so his boss approached her in the law library. “Tim Sheehan told me you’re interested in taking a BRC course,” he said. Her reply? “I’m not interested in taking a BRC course, I’m interested in Tim Sheehan!”
Their match was made and after they started dating, they also ended up as moot court teammates, representing UB Law in the Samuel Polsky Moot Court Competition at Temple University in Philadelphia. Their chemistry was evident, helping them make it to the semifinals. Not long after, Tim proposed!
Hallway meetings turn to Hallmark moments
Melissa (Hancock) Nickson ’97, who now administers the civil ADR program for the 8th Judicial District, would set up a table in the academic spine to mentor other students while working with UB’s Methods of Inquiry program. It just so happens that Christopher Nickson ‘98 would pass that table every day on his way to lunch.
“One day I got up the courage to talk to her,” he says. “ ‘I see you out here all the time, what are you up to?’ ” And so, she told him. In the days that followed, if she was not preoccupied with a student, Chris took the opportunity to strike up a chat.
A writing seminar project was coming up and with the deadline fast approaching, Chris knew who he would ask to be his partner. “I will confess that I had other intentions,” laughs Chris, a vice president and senior consultant at Segal—a benefits, compensation, and investment counseling firm in Buffalo.
That partner request was on a Wednesday and on Thursday they met at Pizzeria Uno—“ostensibly to discuss our strategy,” Chris says—but their conversation lasted long into the night. Their first official date was that Saturday, taking in a concert at Nietzsche’s in Allentown.
Even though Chris had an additional year because he transitioned to the joint JD/MBA program, they stayed together through the rest of law school. It became their tradition each year to host a New Year’s Eve bash. At midnight on the cusp of 1997, he popped the question to see if she’d be his permanent partner. This year they will celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.
Chivalry lives on!
Braving the winter cold was all it took to warm up some romance between Kevin Lelonek ’16 and Anaiss (Rijo) Lelonek ’16.
The pair were heading to New Jersey for the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition, with Kevin competing and Anaiss coaching. The UB Law teams were in two rented minivans, with Kevin in one and Ana in the other. When they stopped to gas up, Kevin braved the frigid temps and insisted on pumping the gas. “You’re such a gentleman,” Anaiss said.
Not long after, they marked their first date on Valentine’s Day at the Italian Village, during their 3L year, and they have been sharing their dinners ever since.
After graduation, Ana, a New York City native, landed a legal job in Buffalo so she and Kevin, now an associate attorney at Gross Shuman, P.C., could stay together. But the pandemic derailed their plans for a big wedding in April 2020. Later that same fall, when Ana’s parents were visiting town, they got married in the Delaware Park Rose Garden—an event they planned in just a single month!
Their daughter April was born in October of last year, and Ana has been on maternity leave from her role as an attorney at the Erie County Department of Social Services, where she handles child abuse and neglect cases.
Distance makes the heart grow fonder
The COVID-19 pandemic made law school tricky for everyone for quite some time, but all it did for Canio Marasco ’22 and Adriana Argento ’22 was help their romance grow stronger.
Their first semester as classmates was in person. “I spent most of that semester just staring at Adriana in class,” says Canio, an associate attorney at Chelus, Herdzik, Speyer & Monte, P.C. in Buffalo. But when classes transitioned to online instruction, he had to settle for staring at her over Zoom. “I never really had the nerve to approach her,” he says.
But fate sometimes intervenes. During their 1L summer, they both were participating in the same internship at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Buffalo. “That’s really when our relationship began,” says Adriana, now an associate attorney at Brown Chiari LLP. “All of the interns were in the same room, all day, every day, working across from each other.”
One afternoon they got to share a lunch break together, and took a stroll down to Canalside to pick up food, sit on the rocks near the marina, and chat while looking out over the water.
It was on those same rocks where Canio would later propose. Their wedding is planned for September 30 of this year. “We do owe it all to the law school,” says Adriana. “If we hadn’t gone to UB Law,” Canio agrees, “our paths would never have crossed.”
We cannot guarantee that you’ll find love at UB School of Law, but we can definitely help with putting you on the path to a career in law. If you are interested in applying to law school, reach out to the admissions team to set up a discovery call!
