Meet Our Community Catalysts

As the State of New York’s law school continues to build strength in the high-stakes, high-reward New York City landscape, ROBERT GUTOWSKI ’99 is making introductions. Introducing students, through the New York City Program in Business and Law, to what he does as general counsel of MSCI Inc., the global investment analytics provider. And introducing employers in Manhattan to some of UB Law’s most talented and ambitious job-seekers.

One of the program’s many involved practitioners, Gutowski teaches compliance and commercial transactions. He also hosts as many as three law students at any given time in externships at MSCI, where they work on contracts and SEC filings, and get exposure to corporate culture.

“Law students have a vision of lawyers that they see on TV,” he says. “I try to demystify what lawyers do inside a company.”

It’s an investment in the program that has gone on for over a decade, helping to grow the network of UB Law lawyers in the city. Gutowski, a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council, also participates in events for accepted students from downstate to encourage them to enroll at UB. “Because there’s so much diversity in the area, you’re likely to increase the diversity of the student body if you’re attracting students from New York City,” he says.

His involvement, Gutowski says, comes naturally: "I had a great law school experience. I found it engaging and intellectually stimulating, and I made great friends. I thank the school for preparing me for a fulfilling career, and I’m happy to try to pass that on to others."

Sometimes law students need help exploring career options. Sometimes they need an empathetic ear, or some candid, motivational advice. KERISHA HAWTHORNE-GREER ’14 has been there—and in her extensive mentoring of UB Law students, she focuses on giving them what they need most.

“Some of them are great at academics, and they don’t need anyone to tell them they can do it,” says Hawthorne-Greer, principal law clerk to Hon. Stephanie Saunders ’00, New York State Court of Claims judge. “It’s more about helping them navigate their professional path. Some know what they want to do, but they’re struggling mentally or academically. For them, it’s about giving them resources and tools they can tap into.”

A familiar presence at law school events, Hawthorne-Greer makes a point of meeting students and encouraging them to reach out. When she notices someone who appears uncomfortable in a networking setting, she steps in: “I’m intentional in trying to identify those students. I understand the feeling of being intimidated in a room full of people.”

She has shared her time and insight with dozens of students from diverse backgrounds, speaking on alumni panels and at community-building programs, and has a special interest in providing guidance to underrepresented students. As the keynote speaker at the Students of Color Brunch early in the academic year, she urged the new 1Ls to create a plan that would carry them through graduation. “That’s the goal,” she says, “And I reminded them that building relationships along the way is just as important.”

When FONDA KUBIAK ’94 was a law student, opportunities to compete on trial teams were limited. Today, as UB Law continues to raise its profile in the nationally competitive trial arena, Kubiak has been pivotal to its success.

A longtime assistant federal public defender, and now training director, for the Federal Public Defender’s Office for the Western District of New York, Kubiak has taught trial technique and specialized trial courses at the law school since 2017. She’s also instrumental in placing Pro Bono Scholars and interns in the public defender’s office.

And she has taken on the demanding work of coaching trial teams—a commitment that typically involves guiding four-person teams through eight weeks of preparation, three or four days a week, and traveling with them to competitions nationwide. The most recent team she coached placed second in a split decision at a competition hosted by the Inter American University of Puerto Rico.

“It’s an intense learning process for the students,” Kubiak says. “We spend a lot of time preparing and practicing, and it’s extremely rewarding to see their advocacy skills evolve. I enjoy watching them transition from not having any comprehension of the courtroom to knowing that they will go out into the world ready to hit the ground running.”

“We have a handful of volunteer attorneys who coach our teams,” says Jennifer Scharf ’05, vice dean for career services, who oversees the trial team program. “Fonda is the best of the best—she’s both the lawyer and the teacher everybody wants to have.”

The Erie County District Attorney’s Office is where many UB Law students and graduates have found their place in the justice system. NATALIE LESH ’93 has worked to deepen that connection, and the cause of justice is stronger for it.

Lesh, special counsel to the District Attorney, has been instrumental in expanding student placement in the busy prosecutor’s office. Today, dozens of UB Law students gain hands-on experience during the school year and summer, assisting with all aspects of case management, including discovery and legal research and writing projects. Students have the opportunity to visit the Erie County Central Police Services Lab, Erie Crime Analysis Center, the Holding Center and more. “We want to expose them to as much in our world as possible,” she says.

“Natalie took hold of the internship and externship program at the DA’s Office and gave it structure,” says Lisa Patterson, the law school’s director of externships and access to justice initiatives. “She made sure the students have a meaningful experience.”

Students can also deepen their understanding through the “The Modern DA” course, taught by Lesh and other experienced prosecutors, where they track a case from arrest through trial and appeal. “Our job is to do justice,” she says, “and if that means we dismiss a case or divert a defendant to an alternative program, we do that. We’ve had such a great response to the course. We’ve hired several students who came to us after they took it because they saw a different perspective of prosecutors than what they might see in the media.”

Transgender individuals seeking to register a new name on government records have an ally in the work ANASTASIA MCCARTHY ’15 does with students in the law school’s Civil Rights and Housing Clinic.

A civil litigator with Hurwitz Fine PC in Buffalo, McCarthy is a key facilitator of the clinic’s community name-change events, where she works alongside clinic students to guide pro bono clients through the required petition process. The effort is organized by the law school clinic in partnership with Our City Action Buffalo and the Erie County Bar Association’s LGBTQAI+ Committee.

There’s a great need for the assistance, McCarthy says, and it’s gratifying: “It makes you feel really good to know that the client is on their way to being who they are.”

McCarthy’s extensive volunteer service is inspirational to future UB Law advocates who aspire to create change. As a co-chair of the legislation committee of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York, she lobbies for initiatives like a statewide supervised visitation program so children displaced by violence can visit a parent safely. Her committee’s advocacy was also instrumental in the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, expanding guarantees in the state Constitution against discrimination.

For McCarthy, her advocacy grows in part out of family life; she’s married to her classmate Anna McCarthy ’15, with two young children. “My children drive me forward every day,” she says. “I want them to know that the world is what we make of it.”