Paul R. Comeau ’73 marks a major anniversary with a major gift

As he left his small high school in Northern New York, Paul R. Comeau ’73 remembers, the guidance on career options was limited.  “There were about four choices,” he recalls.  “If you were good at public speaking, they said you should be a lawyer.”

He was, and the die was cast.  Comeau worked his way through University at Buffalo as an undergraduate sociology major and had his appetite for the law whetted by a pre-law course taught by Professor Bill Greiner.  At the Law School, where he served as articles editor of the Buffalo Law Review, he stumbled onto what would become his life’s work when he took Professor Lou Del Cotto’s introductory tax course.

“It seemed to baffle a lot of people, but to me it was perfectly logical,” Comeau says.  “He talked about statutes, regulations and cases, but also explained policy and social engineering: the broader reasons why the law was what it was and how it got to be that way.  I ended up taking every course offered by Professor Del Cotto, and some from Ken Joyce as well.”

He also found a summer legal job with the Buffalo firm Hodgson Russ, one that opened the door to what is now a four-decade association with the firm.  As a partner and former Chairman of the firm, Comeau has built a nationally recognized practice in tax planning and multistate tax issues, focusing on businesses and high-net-worth clients.  He practices in the firm’s Buffalo, New York City, and Palm Beach, Fla., offices, has authored numerous books and articles, has given nearly 1,000 speeches, taught Corporate Tax at UB during a Del Cotto sabbatical, and currently serves on the New York Tax Commissioners Advisory Group, the NYSBA Tax Section Executive Committee, the NYS Business Council Board and other boards and committees.

Now, as his class prepares for its 40-year reunion, and the school celebrates its 125th anniversary, Comeau and his wife, Victoria, are making a major commitment to the Law School with a six-figure gift.

“After 40 years of gratitude and more modest contributions to the Law School, I thought it was time,” Comeau says, “and maybe my classmates might want to consider similar gifts.  My gift has been motivated by many things – the timing of the 40th anniversary of my law school class, a career that has been quite satisfying for me, appreciating the quality of UB students hired by Hodgson over the years, and feeling that it’s about time I do something more significant than my annual giving.”

He says meetings with UB President Satish K. Tripathi and Law School Dean Makau W. Mutua cemented his feeling that “the University as a whole is heading in a good direction under Satish’s leadership, and the Law School is in excellent hands with Dean Mutua and his commitment.”

He also notes that Hodgson Russ is “an excellent firm, with phenomenal clients and wonderful attorneys." Hodgson has been generous in its support for the Law School, as well as providing mentors for Comeau and others. Early mentors included people like Richard Heath and Donald Lubick, who both taught at UB Law School at one time while working at Hodgson. They helped Comeau learn the intricacies of tax, business and estate law.

He says the analytical skills he developed in Del Cotto’s and Joyce’s classes have served him well, especially the ability to interpret the tax code against a broader backdrop of social and economic policy.