Law Alumni Association announces its 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award recipients

In keeping with tradition, this year’s annual dinner—to be held April 30 at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Buffalo—will celebrate the achievements of five UB Law alumni and one non-alumnus.

The awards, which have been presented annually for more than six decades, recognize contributions to the legal profession and the community. They are presented to celebrate excellence in the judiciary, private practice, public service, community service, business and service by a non-alumnus.

Hon. Barbara R. Johnson-Lee ’86
Judge, Buffalo City Court
Buffalo, N.Y.

Hon. Barbara R. Johnson-Lee was elected to the Buffalo City Court bench in 2014 and currently serves as an acting Erie County Court judge, presiding over the Supreme Court Judicial Diversion Program and the Drug Court, Mental Health, and Veterans Treatment Courts. She previously presided over the Domestic Violence Court, and currently serves on the Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics.

Prior to joining the bench, Judge Johnson-Lee was in private practice for 16 years, serving clients in criminal, civil, real estate, matrimonial and bankruptcy law matters, and volunteered extensively with the Erie County Bar Association’s Volunteer Lawyers Project, where she received the Association’s Pro Bono Award. She also served as a hearing officer in the Small/Commercial Claims Division of Buffalo City Court and as a staff attorney in the Criminal Defense Unit at the Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo.

Her community service includes the Eighth Judicial District Justice in the Courts Committee, and service on the boards of the African American Cultural Center and the UB Law Alumni Association.

Kristin Graham Koehler ’94
Managing Partner,
Sidley Austin LLP
Washington, D.C.

Kristin Graham Koehler is a member of Sidley Austin LLP’s Management and Executive Committees. She also serves as Managing Partner of the Washington, D.C. office and head of the D.C. Litigation Group. She is consistently recognized as a leading white collar defense lawyer.            

In her practice, Koehler has handled numerous U.S. Department of Justice criminal investigations involving health care fraud, procurement fraud, public corruption, antitrust, securities fraud and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. She also has significant experience representing clients in DOJ civil qui tam investigations, state attorney general investigations and congressional investigations, and she has negotiated numerous corporate integrity agreements with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General. 

Koehler joined Sidley as an associate in 1999, after a clerkship with Hon. David G. Larimer, then Chief Judge of the Western District of New York. As a law student, she was Assistant Executive Editor of the Buffalo Law Review and a member of the school’s national trial advocacy team.

Michele A. Brown ’79
Owner,
Law Offices of Michele A. Brown
Former Chief Attorney,
Children’s Legal Center
Buffalo, N.Y.

A longtime advocate for children in Western New York, Michele A. Brown has served as an attorney for children for almost 40 years.  In 1999, she was selected as the Chief Attorney for the Children’s Legal Center by the Hon M. Dolores Denman, a position she held until 2023. The Center’s work is focused primarily on custody, access, adoption and guardianship as well as abuse and neglect when those issues arise with children the Center represents. She remains an advocate for children today. 

Brown is a member of the Fourth Department Children for Attorneys Advisory Committee and a frequent speaker on children’s issues.  She has taught Children and the Law as an adjunct faculty member at the law school since 2017.

In 2023, Brown received the Dillon Attorney for Children Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Fourth Department’s Attorneys for Children in recognition of her exemplary advocacy on behalf of children and her dedication to the next generation of attorneys for children.  She also received the New York State Bar Association’s Howard A. Levine Award for Excellence in Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare, as well as the Bar Association of Erie County’s Attorney of the Year Award.

Joseph W. Belluck ’94
Partner, Belluck Law
New York City

As a founding partner of the Manhattan-based law firm, Belluck Law LLP, Joseph W. Belluck has concentrated his practice on asbestos, mesothelioma, personal injury, consumer and defective product litigation. 

His extensive community service includes serving as a SUNY trustee since 2010, and chairing SUNY’s Charter School Committee since 2012 and Compensation Committee since 2022. He has also been a member of the New York State Judicial Conduct Commission since 2010, and chair of the Commission since 2017. He served as a member of New York’s Medicaid Redesign Team, and currently chairs the New York State Cannabis Advisory Board. 

He is a trusted advisor to many New York elected officials and not-for-profit leaders. 

Belluck previously served as counsel to the New York State Attorney General, representing the State of New York in its landmark litigation against the tobacco industry. He also served as a judicial law clerk for Hon. Lloyd Doggett, Texas Supreme Court, and as Director of Attorney Services for Trial Lawyers Care, an organization dedicated to providing free legal assistance to victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. 

Belluck is board chair of Precious Dreams, a national organization that provides comfort items to foster and homeless youths, and is on the board of the New York Special Olympics. 

Carmen L. Snell ’92
Attorney at Law
Buffalo, N.Y.

Carmen L. Snell is a seasoned attorney with over two decades of experience providing strategic legal counsel across corporate, government, and law firm settings. Most recently, she served as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, where she played a key role in managing high-stakes litigation, negotiating complex transactions, and advising senior leadership on employment law, compliance, privacy, and healthcare regulatory matters. She also championed diversity and inclusion initiatives, co-chairing the Women’s Leadership Circle and serving on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Steering Committee. Before practicing health care law, she worked for four years as an assistant attorney general with the New York State Department of Law, successfully defending the state in personal injury, medical malpractice, and civil rights cases. Her extensive experience in litigation, risk management, and regulatory affairs has made her a trusted advisor to executive leadership and corporate boards.

Snell is a past president of the Minority Bar Foundation and served on the Diversity and Inclusion Council for the Buffalo Niagara Partnership. Additionally, she is a past president of the Niagara Frontier Corporate Counsel Association and the Minority Bar Association of Western New York.

She chairs the board of directors for Read to Succeed Buffalo and serves on the boards of the Bar Association of Erie County, the Buffalo Prenatal and Perinatal Network and the Western New York Women’s Foundation.

Hon. Lawrence J. Vilardo
U.S. District Judge,
Western District of New York
Buffalo, N.Y.

A Harvard Law School graduate, Hon. Lawrence J. Vilardo was appointed to the federal bench in 2015, where he currently serves as a United States District Judge for the Western District of New York. Prior to his appointment by President Barack Obama and unanimous confirmation by the United States Senate, he was a founding partner of Connors & Vilardo, now Connors LLP, a boutique litigation firm in Buffalo; and an associate at Damon, Morey, Sawyer & Moot, now Barclay Damon LLP. He began his legal career as a law clerk to Hon. Irving L. Goldberg, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in Dallas.

Judge Vilardo has taught Constitutional Law at Canisius College, his undergraduate alma mater, and Appellate Practice at the law school. He has also lectured on legal writing, legal ethics, appellate practice, attorney-client privilege, civil procedure and other topics before meetings of the New York State Bar Association, the Bar Association of Erie County, the National Federation of Paralegal Associations and the Western New York Paralegal Association.

He is a former editor in chief and longtime associate editor of the American Bar Association journal, Litigation. He was also the first lawyer practicing in Buffalo to be inducted into the invitation-only American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, an organization recognizing outstanding appellate advocates.