The Harry A. Rachlin (1926) Oral History Project

Faculty, students and alumni gathered to pay homage to professors who retired within a few years of 2010. Those honored included Lee A. Albert, James B. Atleson, Barry B. Boyer, David B. Filvaroff, Ellen M. Gibson, Thomas E. Headrick, Kenneth F. Joyce, Janet S. Lindgren, Elizabeth B. Mensch, Wade J. Newhouse, Judy Scales-Trent, and Louis H. Swartz.

Lauren D. Rachlin, a pioneer in international law in Buffalo, founded the International Law and Practice Section of the New York State Bar Association in the 1970s. He had a corporate international practice. He supported the Law Alumni Association’s Oral History Project, named after his father, Harry A. Rachlin ’26.

Professor Robert I. Reis, a UB Law professor since 1968, pursued a broad range of environmental, land use and development, finance and technology interests. Previously director of the School of Law’s Government Law Program, he later became co-director of the Intellectual Property and Technology Concentration.

Hon. Lisa Bloch Rodwin ’85 is a Family Court judge and a pioneer in prosecuting domestic violence. As an assistant district attorney, she transformed how domestic violence crimes are managed in Erie County, leading the innovative Domestic Violence Unit before becoming a judge.

Warren B. Rosenbaum ’72 is a partner and a member of the Litigation Department of Woods Oviatt Gilman LLP in Rochester, N.Y. He serves as lead litigation counsel in large and complex legal matters in federal, bankruptcy and state courts.

Trini E. Ross ’92 is senior litigation counsel for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of New York. She also teaches Trial Technique at UB School of Law.

Laurence K. Rubin ’77, a partner with the Buffalo law firm Kavinoky Cook LLP since 2007, makes a difference in the community by volunteering his time and legal expertise to assist civic, religious and political organizations. His practice focuses on public and private development, real property law and municipal law.

Hon. Cynthia N. Rufe ’77 was appointed by President George W. Bush as a judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 2002. Before that, she served as a state court judge, a private practitioner and a public defender.

Hon. Robert T. Russell Jr., an innovative Buffalo City Court judge in the Eighth Judicial District and acting judge for Erie County, created and began presiding over the nation’s first Veterans Treatment Court in 2008. He also established and presided over Buffalo’s Drug Treatment Court and the Buffalo Mental Health Court.

Hon. Stephanie A. Saunders ’00,  judge, New York Court of Claims, is an advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession. She has volunteered with organizations such as the Volunteer Lawyers Project, the Erie County Bar Association, the American Red Cross, and the Minority Bar Association.

William F. Savino ’75, a prominent litigator and senior partner in Woods Oviatt Gilman LLP, teaches in both UB’s School of Law and School of Management. He is also a jazz musician. He was recognized with the 46 Edwin F. Jaeckle Award for his professionalism and service to the university. The award is the highest honor the University at Buffalo School of Law and Law Alumni Association can bestow.

David C. Schopp ’82 is executive director of the Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo, the largest provider of criminal appellate services for indigent defendants in Erie, Genesee, Cattaraugus and Orleans counties, among other areas of assistance. He has served as head of the agency since 2000.

Richard D. Schwartz, a prominent sociologist, made significant contributions to the field of law and society, particularly during his tenure as dean of the University at Buffalo School of Law from 1971 to 1976. Notably, he was the only non-lawyer to hold this position. 

Robert C. Schwenkel ’82 has unswervingly advised and supported our graduates who hope to work in the New York City office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP. A partner since 1989, he serves as co-chair of the Corporate Department and global head of the M&A and Private Equity practices.

Hon. Rose H. Sconiers ’73 was appointed to the New York State Appellate Division, Fourth Department, by Gov. David A. Patterson on Feb. 1, 2010. A longtime leader in civic, philanthropic and legal organizations, she received the Distinguished Alumna Award for the Judiciary at the 38 Annual Dinner.

Hon. Hugh B. Scott ’74 posthumously received the Jaeckle Award, the highest honor the Law School and the Law Alumni Association can bestow. An innovative jurist and the first African-American to serve as a federal judge in the Western District of New York, he spent more than three decades on the bench.

Karen Andolina Scott ’09, executive director of the nonprofit agency Journey’s End Refugee Services Inc., oversees the organization’s administration, programs and strategic plan in Buffalo. She develops and implements legal services that offer holistic immigration representation to low-income refugees, asylees and other vulnerable immigrant populations.

Thomas F. Segalla ’72, founding partner of Goldberg Segalla LLP in Buffalo, is a nationally recognized authority on bad faith, reinsurance and insurance, and an ARIAS-U.S. Certified arbitrator and mediator. The firm employs about 285 lawyers in 19 offices in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Marilyn Tebor Shaw ’79, associate judicial administrator of Cornell University, serves in the New York State Bar’s Attorney Emeriti Program in the field of estate planning for the elderly, and serves pro bono on Ithaca’s Board of Zoning Appeals. She has served as legal counsel for the Nomadic Kenyan Children’s Educational Fund.

UB School of Law celebrated the 100 graduation anniversary of its first two female graduates, Hon. Cecil B. Wiener and Helen Z. M. Rodgers, in the Class of 1899, with a conference titled “Sisters in Law: 100 Years of Women at UB Law.” The event recognized the remarkable contributions of women to the legal profession over the past century.