Students of Color and Buffalo Law Review to host 30th anniversary events

Back when two of the law school’s signature year-end events began, George H.W. Bush was president, gasoline cost $1 a gallon, and the world wide web was born.

Much may have changed since 1989, but the principles of the Students of Color Dinner and the Buffalo Law Review Dinner have held true: to celebrate student achievement and find inspiration in those who have gone on to great success.

The 30th anniversary events are coming up – April 11 for the Students of Color Dinner, April 25 for the Law Review Dinner – both are opportunities to celebrate great traditions and for alumni and the wider legal community to connect with our students.

Students of Color Dinner

The Buffalo Niagara Marriott is the venue for the Students of Color Dinner, an annual collaboration among student organizations advancing the interests of black, Latino/a and Asian American students at UB School of Law.

Deonna Jones ’19, a member of the Black Law Students Association, is coordinating the dinner with input from all the constituent organizations. She says the dinner honors both the graduating students and noted alumni, and gives everyone the chance to build professional networks.

“Our alumni contribute in so many ways, and we want to recognize that,” Jones says. “So we seek out people in the community we want to hear from and want to make a connection with. We network with these different individuals, and our goal is to continue to grow and reach beyond the law school and into the community.”

The evening’s keynote speaker is Crystal Peoples-Stokes, majority leader of the New York State Assembly.

Tiffany R. Perry ’00, one of two receiving Distinguished Alumni Awards at the dinner, remembers the event as “a great opportunity to meet lawyers of color in a relaxed setting.”

“There are so many fields a lawyer can pursue,” says Perry, a court attorney-referee for Erie County Family Court. “Sometimes we get a little cookie-cutter in imagining what an attorney is, but there are so many ways to be an attorney. And it’s helpful to talk informally at the dinner with all kinds of attorneys about what they do.”

SOC Dinner.

In addition to Perry, Family Court Judge Lisa Bloch Rodwin ’85 will also receive a Distinguished Alumni Award. Other honors include:

  • Community Organization Award: Minority Bar Foundation of Western New York.
  • Trailblazer Awards: Jacqueline Rushton, retired senior legislative assistant to the Buffalo Common Council, and Nate T. Yohannes ’12, director of corporate strategy and business development for Microsoft Corp.’s artificial intelligence division.
  • Jacob D. Hyman Faculty Award: Associate Professor Christine Bartholomew.
  • Special Award: Vikki L. Pryor ’78, principal and founder of Change Create Transform.

Buffalo Law Review Dinner

The Buffalo Law Review Dinner will be held at the Park Country Club in Amherst. It’s being organized by Stacy Kochanowski ’19 in her capacity as managing editor of the Law Review.

Kochanowski notes that one highlight of the event is the announcement of the 10 “Notes and Comments” pieces judged best in a competition among second-year students, and the five among them that will be published in the journal.

The Buffalo Law Review’s year, she says, includes five issues, and for the first time the journal will publish five full-length pieces by students. In deciding on whom to honor with Distinguished Alumni Awards, she says, the editors chose the theme of combating the opioid crisis. The honorees are Buffalo City Court Judge Craig D. Hannah ’95, who created the nation’s first opioid crisis intervention court, and U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy Jr. ’88, whose office recently convicted a drug dealer of selling a fatal dose of fentanyl in the first case of its kind to go to trial.

About 150 people are expected at the dinner; “it’s like planning a whole wedding,” Kochanowski says. 

Buffalo Law Review.