Dennis R. McCoy ’77
Dennis R. McCoy ’77 is a senior litigation partner at the Buffalo law firm Hiscock & Barclay. He represents clients in major, complex litigation throughout New York State and the Northeast, focusing on legal and health care professionals facing malpractice actions. He also serves as a court-appointed mediator.
About this Interview
Interview Date(s)
May 7, 2015
Occasion
Recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award for Private Practice at the 53rd Annual Dinner
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About Dennis R. McCoy
McCoy was raised in Queens, N.Y., as an only child. His mother taught nursing at Bellevue Hospital, and his father worked at Pan Am in in-flight catering at JFK Airport. The first lawyer in the family, McCoy went to the University of Notre Dame. He initially wanted to be an English professor. He had no role model for being a lawyer, although he liked to argue and debate. After college, he took the LSAT and applied to the Faculty of Law and Jurisprudence, as UB Law was then called, but decided to take a year off to sell insurance.
He chose UB School of Law because he was paying the bills and it was “extremely affordable.” He was a member of the second class to matriculate in Amherst, and the law school was situated in a frozen, muddy field—a shocking difference from Notre Dame. He joined the Buffalo Law Review, socialized at Duff’s and made lasting friendships, but didn’t like law school.
After law school, McCoy worked in Rochester for Harris, Beach, Wilcox, Rubin & Levey, followed by Hirsch & Burke, P.C., then Saperston and Day until he moved back to Buffalo to set up an office.
He considers his greatest professional achievement mentoring the president of the Minority Bar Association, Stephanie Saunders. “What we do as lawyers is help people,” he says. “It’s important.”
