Brent L. Wilson '76

Brent Wilson was in his first year at the University of Georgia Law School when his wife, Trojanell, got a job at Xerox Corp. in Rochester. So there was a choice to be made: He could drive east every day to a private law school in Syracuse, or drive west to Buffalo and the SUNY system's only public law school.

He knew that SUNY Buffalo Law "had a stellar tradition" of educating future lawyers barred from attending law school in the segregated South, and it was clear that the school recognized the value of educating minority attorneys, so the drive west was a clear choice. He put a lot of miles on that old car, stayed over with friends sometimes when the class schedule demanded it, and graduated in 1976.

Thus began Wilson's long association with SUNY Buffalo Law School, one that has continued with his service since 2004 on the Dean's Advisory Council and now with a major gift to support diversity scholarships at the school.

"I have pride in the institution," says Wilson, who practices mostly labor and employment law litigation as a partner in the Atlanta law firm Elarbee, Thompson, Sapp & Wilson. "I wanted to become a lawyer, and Buffalo provided me with an opportunity. I received a quality education at the Law School. It allowed me to go into the profession that I desired and to do relatively well, and I felt that I owed a debt of gratitude to the institution.

"As you grow older, you want the institutions that you are affiliated with to be appropriately recognized. The only way that happens is when alumni support those institutions."

Because Wilson's $100,000 gift is structured over a period of years, it helps to provide the Law School with a stable element in planning its scholarship budget. Brent Wilson Scholars will be chosen based on financial need and membership in a racial or ethnic group traditionally under-represented in the legal community.

He says he is sold on the idea that more scholarship support equals an improved student body, and thus better recognition for his alma mater.

"The dean has a vision to elevate the Law School to a more competitive position in comparison with other nationally ranked law schools in the United States," Wilson says. "In order to do that, it is necessary to attract a certain kind of student who has options to go to other institutions. If you can make it desirable for that student to attend Buffalo because you are able to provide some scholarship assistance, that helps us in attracting that student. And it helps us to change the footprint of an institution that, albeit well recognized in Western New York, is coming to be better recognized nationally and even internationally."

In addition to his work on the DAC, Wilson has spoken to SUNY Buffalo Law students in small-group and mentoring events, and knows that reputation plays a large role in how students choose a law school. He also says he has been "just blown away by the quality of the professors who are leaving high-ranking institutions in much more desirable climate conditions to come to Buffalo and teach. It has been very rewarding and exciting to see the educational and professional backgrounds of the faculty we have been attracting."