Vice Provost Lucinda Finley returns to teaching and scholarship

After more than nine years as the University’s Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, Professor Lucinda M. Finley is returning to the Law School full time.

Finley, the Frank G. Raichle Professor of Trial and Appellate Advocacy at SUNY Buffalo Law School, is leaving her position in University administration as the academic year ends. She has served in the office of the University’s provost since February 2005, where she has worked with the provost and other senior University leaders to support UB faculty members in myriad ways.

“In stepping down, Lucinda can be proud of her accomplishments in building strength in the UB faculty – the foundation of a great university,” said Charles F. Zukoski, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, in a letter to the campus community. “As vice provost, Lucinda enhanced greatly UB’s goals of promoting faculty excellence and recruiting and retaining excellent faculty.”

The provost went on to detail Finley’s accomplishments over more than nine years in Capen Hall. They include:

“She has provided meaningful advice and assistance to faculty members preparing for the promotion and tenure process, improved the clarity and transparency of information about the process, as well as coordinated that process University-wide. 

“She has facilitated the activities of the President’s Review Board – which makes recommendations to the president and provost on matters related to faculty appointments, promotion and tenure – to ensure its integrity and efficiency.  Lucinda’s efforts in facilitating the promotion and tenure process contributed to UB’s being rated by Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education as an exemplary institution, based on our own faculty ratings of that process.

“Lucinda’s efforts have extended to enabling recognition of our faculty. She led the nomination process for internal, SUNY and national awards and has worked with deans to increase both nominations and the success of these nominations. She has done this extraordinarily well, and her stewardship efforts have resulted in nearly 50 faculty members being appointed to SUNY’s Distinguished Faculty Ranks during her tenure.

“Lucinda significantly expanded UB’s new-faculty orientation program to better introduce incoming faculty to our University and to prepare them for future professional, scholarly and teaching success. She created a department chair workshop series to similarly prepare new chairs to excel as department leaders.

“Lucinda has worked closely with deans and department chairs to help them achieve their faculty recruitment goals and established workshops to provide search committee training, including strategies for diversifying the faculty. She also improved UB’s recruitment process by creating the tremendously popular dual career partner hiring assistance program.

“An invaluable resource, mentor and strong advocate for UB’s faculty, Lucinda has done a great deal to establish a culture of trust and transparency at our university.”

Finley’s research and teaching areas include tort law, women and the law, reproductive rights, employment discrimination, and First Amendment and equal protection law.

She is the author of numerous law review articles and book chapters on tort law and women and the law, and is the co-author of a leading casebook, Tort Law & Practice. Her recent research focuses on tort reform caps on non-economic damages, and analyzes how caps disparately affect women, the elderly and children. Finley is also active as a litigator and appellate advocate in the federal courts, and frequently testifies before the U.S. Congress and state legislative committees.

An honors graduate of Columbia University Law School, she taught at Yale Law School before coming to UB.