Law Links - February 2016
New directors for Innocence and Justice Project
Left to right: Brandon White ’16, Farina Mendelson ’17, Elizabeth Parsons ’16, Jesse Pyle ’16, the late John R. Nuchereno, Kelly Pettrone ’17, Taylor Baker ’17, Brian Barnes ’17 and Matthew Paris ’17.
Gary J. Muldoon ’76
Two UB School of Law alumni with extensive experience in the criminal courts have been chosen to lead the law school’s Innocence and Justice Project.
The new project leaders are Gary J. Muldoon ’76 and Jon P. Getz ’92. SUNY Distinguished Service Professor Charles Patrick Ewing, director of the Advocacy Institute, announced the appointments in the wake of the sudden death of project director John R. Nuchereno.
In the Innocence and Justice Project, a select group of second- and third-year law students will identify cases in which there is strong evidence of a miscarriage of justice and, in their role as student attorneys, press the case for redress. They will take on two types of cases: those claiming that they did not commit the crime of which they were convicted, and those who were not afforded the due process of law. Students in the project receive course credit, and the hours that they work will count toward the state-mandated requirement of pro bono service in order to be licensed as lawyers.
Eight highly qualified students are enrolled in the project for its inaugural spring semester. Ewing said that reality, as well as the momentum the project already has achieved, made it necessary to identify new leadership without delay.
Jon P. Getz ’92
“Gary and Jon will split the position and together offer the students the benefit of two supervisors,” Ewing said. “The Innocence and Justice Project is in good hands with Gary and Jon at the helm.”
Muldoon’s areas of practice include criminal and civil appeals, as well as litigation generally; criminal law; family law; and professional responsibility. He has been a member of the Attorney for the Child panel in the Fourth Department. He has argued before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals as well as New York State’s highest state court, the Court of Appeals.
He is also the author or co-author of several books on law, including The Education of a Lawyer and Handling a Criminal Case in New York, as well as Family Law for New York Paralegals. He is a contributing lawyer editor for the 10th Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary.
A longtime adjunct faculty member of the Law School, he has also been an instructor in the Cornell Legal Aid Clinic and has taught college courses in family law, legal research, and wills and estate planning.
Getz is a trial and appellate attorney with extensive experience in both civil and criminal cases in federal and state courts. He has successfully represented private citizens, small businesses, law enforcers, firefighters and other attorneys in complex litigation at the federal and state levels.
A frequent speaker at continuing legal education seminars, Getz is an adjunct faculty member at SUNY Brockport, where he teaches Moot Court, Law & Social Issues, and Introduction to Law & Legal Process. He has served on the Monroe County Bar Association’s Board of Trustees and is past chair of the Criminal Justice Section, the Memorial Committee, and the Solo & Small Firm Practice Section. He is currently the Chair of the Assigned Counsel Committee of the Monroe County Bar Association.
Muldoon and Getz are partners in the Rochester, N.Y.-based boutique law firm Muldoon, Getz & Reston, established in 2003.