A Tribute to Robert I. Reis

Robert I. Reis started teaching at Buffalo in 1968. I joined the Law School in 2006, so he had nearly 40 years as an academic under his belt when we first met. Bob is an impressive guy, but one of the most impressive things about him is his willingness to reinvent himself, to find a new subject of interest, test it, poke at it and study it until it finally yields to his intellectual curiosity. It was one of the things I enjoyed most about having Bob as a colleague.

Bob truly loves the law – that stood out from our first meeting, which quickly moved from opening pleasantries to a discussion of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Grokster copyright case. Bob started his academic career teaching and writing in environmental law. And he continued to keep up on events in that legal arena. But it also seems to be the case that Bob was never going to be satisfied just becoming an expert in one area. His intellectual curiosity led him to research and teach state and local government, taxation, land use and commercial real estate development, among other subjects.

The reason Bob and I immediately got to know each other is that Bob decided in the early 2000s that he was interested in intellectual property. IP and Bob were a natural fit. Bob has a love of technology. He bought multiple computers just so he could take them apart and figure out what made them tick. Bob harnessed this interest in technology to the broader themes of intellectual property –how to incentivize creation and best promote a rich public domain. For several years, Bob and I taught the Intellectual Property Colloquium together. The class was meant to serve as a capstone for students interested in specializing in patent, copyright or trademark law. The class was different whenever we taught it. Of course, some of this had to do with new legal developments, but it also had to do with Bob’s restless intellect. Why teach something you already knew when you could investigate something different and cutting edge?

The other thing I want to mention in this short sketch is Bob’s selflessness as a colleague. He was not only willing to pitch in –teaching classes that suddenly needed staffing when someone retired or went on sabbatical –but he did it gladly, signing on for multiple courses in excess of the faculty’s required teaching load, relishing the challenge of mastering a new legal topic and doing whatever he could to help the Law School. Even though he was teaching more classes than me, Bob would constantly ask me how he could help, if there was anything he could do to lighten my burden. And he did help me, from sharing ideas on scholarship to reviewing exam questions to, when I had to suddenly address a family illness, volunteering (along with his wonderful wife, Ellen) to babysit my 2-year-old twins.

After nearly a half-century of service to the Law School, Bob is taking a well-deserved break. But I think he had a lot of fun while he was here. He would often refer to teaching and writing in intellectual property as “play.” Bob’s idea of play made the Law School a richer place, bettering the lives of his students and of his colleagues.