Laurence K. Rubin ’77

Laurence Rubin grew up in a Jewish household in the ’60s and ’70s. His brother was seven years older. The family lived in the Bronx and Queens before moving to Forest Hills, N.Y. He attended college at SUNY New Paltz. Politically active, and with a strong public service ethic instilled by his mother, Rubin sued the Ulster County Board of Elections when he was prevented from registering New Paltz students to vote. That lawsuit inspired him to apply to law school. “I was accepted at UB, met a local girl, and 45 years later I am still in Buffalo.”

UB Law was a good fit for Rubin. Red Schwartz, a sociologist (and non-lawyer), was dean. Rubin was in the second class on the Amherst campus, where he lived in a dorm. His classmates were mostly local. He described Buffalo as a conservative, traditional bar town, while New Paltz was more hippie liberal. At UB, Rubin joined the National Lawyers Guild student group, which became his study group. He highly valued the personal interactions with his professors, which included Kenneth F. Joyce, Jacob D. Hyman, John H. Schlegel, Milton Kaplan and William R. Greiner. The letter grading system—H, Q, F—was “strange.” He was interested in municipal law, and Professor Kaplan introduced him to Erie County Attorney James Magavern in the summer preceding his third year. Magavern hired him as an intern and became a mentor.

Soon after graduating, and interested in a public service career, Rubin was appointed assistant county attorney. He was next recruited as a general counsel for Buffalo Development Cos. and served as Buffalo’s commissioner of community development. Mayor Jimmy Griffin appointed him corporation counsel for the City of Buffalo, and he later served as corporation counsel for Erie County, as commissioner of environment and planning for Erie County and as Erie County attorney, before joining Kavinoky Cook.

Sen. Bob Casey was his political mentor and got Rubin involved in politics. Arnold Gardner, another mentor, brought him to Kavinoky Cook because he speaks “government-ese” and had worked on public-private economic development projects.

He feels satisfaction looking at projects and buildings on which he has worked. Still, he is just as proud of his work with not-for-profits, especially Jewish Family Service of Buffalo and Erie County, Friends of the Edward M. Cotter, the Buffalo Zoological Society, Kleinhans Music Hall Management Corp., Temple Beth Zion, the Greater Buffalo Jewish Community Center and others.