The Advocacy Institute
The Advocacy Institute is dedicated to helping students cultivate the skills, discipline, and ethics necessary to become creative and principled litigators.
The Institute serves as host to the law school’s programs in Trial Advocacy, Appellate Advocacy, and Mediation. Through these programs, students train with leading judges, trial attorneys, and faculty to develop the litigation skills necessary to successfully advocate on behalf of their future clients. The Advocacy Institute is also home to the Law School's Innocence and Justice Project, which tackles the problems of over-incarceration, racial injustice in the criminal legal system, and unjust convictions, through litigation and research.
The Advocacy Institute also seeks to provide new opportunities for our students to apply their first-rate doctrinal and theoretical education to the practice of law. The Advocacy Institute’s National Advisory Board, comprised of nationally recognized practitioners and jurists, provides guidance and counsel to the Institute’s Director as to how to develop, enhance, and expand the Institute’s programs.
The Advocacy Institute depends on the generosity of alumni and friends of the University at Buffalo School of Law for its existence and growth. To become involved in our mission, please contact: law-advocacy@buffalo.edu. Thank you for your support.
The Advocacy Institute is pleased to offer a Certificate of Concentration in Advocacy to qualifying JD students.
Contact Us
The Advocacy Institute
For additional information on the Advocacy Institute, or to become involved in our mission, please contact law-advocacy@buffalo.edu.
- Anthony O'Rourke, Director
- Dawn Skopinski, Associate Director
Trial Advocacy
* Jennifer Scharf, Director
Appellate Advocacy
* Lucinda Finley, Director
Mediation
* Steven Sugarman, Director
National Advisory Board
Christine P. Bartholomew
Vice Dean for Academic Affairs; Professor, University at Buffalo School of Law
Michael A. Battle ’81
Partner, Barnes & Thornburg LLP
Jennifer A. Beckage ’07
Partner, Beckage PLLC
Mathew Biondolillo '24
Student Representative
Donald P. Chiari ’83
Partner, Brown Chiari LLP
Robert A. Clifford
Founder/Senior Partner, Clifford Law Offices
Terrence M. Connors ’71, Chair
Partner, Connors LLP
John J. Fromen, Jr. ’87
John J. Fromen, , Attorneys at Law, P.C.
Neil A. Goldberg ’73
Partner, Goldberg Segalla
E. Stewart Jones
Partner, E. Stewart Jones Hacker Murphy
Craig A. Leslie ’97
Partner, Phillips Lytle LLP
Michael D. Mann ’06
Partner, Sidley Austin LLP
Marianne Mariano ’94
Federal Public Defender, Federal Public Defender’s Office
Hon. Erin M. Peradotto ’84
Justice, NYS Supreme Court, Appellate Division, 4th Department
Barry C. Scheck
Professor of Law, Co-Director, Innocence Project, Cardozo Law School
Clarence J. Sundram '72
Monitor/Special Master United States District Court
Dennis C. Vacco ’78
Partner, Lippes Mathias Wexler Friedman, LLP
Christopher M. Viapiano
(Emeritus member)
Partner, Sullivan Cromwell LLP
Hon. Richard Wesley
Judge, US Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit
Staff
Anthony P. O’Rourke
Joseph W. Belluck & Laura L. Aswad Professor of Law;
Director, Advocacy Institute
University at Buffalo School of Law
Dawn M. Skopinski
Associate Director, Advocacy Institute, University at Buffalo School of Law