Five graduates of the University at Buffalo Law School, plus one non-alumnus, have earned Distinguished Alumni awards for their contributions to the legal profession and community. They will be recognized at the 46th annual UB Law Alumni Association dinner tonight at the Hyatt Regency Buffalo.

"This is an exceptionally worthy group of recipients," said UB Law Alumni Association President Margaret Gryko, assistant general counsel for Delaware North Cos. Inc. "Their leadership and accomplishments have contributed enormously to our law school, community and legal profession."
The honorees are Hon. David Mahoney '52, "for his conscientious and diligent performance in the judiciary"; attorney Francis Letro '79, "for his leadership by example as private practitioner"; attorney Daniel Lukasik '88, "for his many contributions to the betterment of our community"; New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services Commissioner Denise O'Donnell '82, "for her commitment to public service"; attorney Thomas Black Jr. '79, "for his exemplary performance in business"; and UB Law Interim Dean Makau Mutua, "for outstanding service to the university and the community by a non-alumnus."
Profiles of all six follow below.

Born and raised in West Seneca, Black served as president of the West Seneca School Board while a student at UB Law.
Now, even though he finds himself in the Dallas, Texas, area, where he founded his own firm, Black Mann & Graham, he is still far more active in UB Law matters than many graduates who still live in Western New York.
Currently serving as chair of the law school's Dean's Advisory Committee, Black finds himself back in Buffalo on law-school business several times a year.
"We're in an interesting position right now," he says. "We're trying to rally UB alumni and local legislators to help us to regain our funding. We've been seriously underfunded for a long time, and now the state has budgeted money to open new law schools instead of properly funding the school that they already have. Instead of spending $50 million to get something started, they should spend $5 million to get this law school back where it should be."
"It all comes down to politics - which goes back," he jokes, "to the Greek root word ‘poly,' meaning many, and ‘tick,' meaning a blood-sucking insect."
And though he continues his devotion to UB as a long-distance relationship, one of the things that Black likes so much about the Dallas area is how much it reminds him of Buffalo. "The quality of life (in Dallas) is similar to Buffalo. The housing is reasonable, you can get a nice home in a decent school district for your family, and the people are great."
Black plans to continue his involvement with his alma mater. "UB has given me a big step ahead in my career, and to the extent that I've had success, it's because of that education. It's critical to give back to those that helped you along the way, and that's why I'm a big believer in UB Law."
Terri Parsell Hilmey

If it weren't for then-Vice Provost William Greiner, Letro may never have finished law school.
When he started, in 1972, the law school was housed on Eagle Street downtown, enabling Letro to skip over to the Erie County Courthouse to watch lawyers in action.
"It would be painful going back to the classroom," he recalls.
When UB Law moved to the university's Amherst campus the next year, Letro felt a disconnect, and left after one semester to work for Conrail and travel in Europe.
Greiner, who later persuaded personal-injury lawyer Paul Beltz to hire Letro, encouraged him to come back and finish the program. He says it was his second opportunity, because UB Law had taken a chance on the "average student from a family of nonlawyers."
Letro got the law bug as a 7-year-old when he saw how a lawyer helped his father, who'd lost a leg in an industrial accident. "I was so impressed with how the lawyer gave our family hope and boosted my father's spirit that I was sure I wanted to be a lawyer," he says.
Letro's law firm, Francis M. Letro Attorneys at Law, represents plaintiffs in personal-injury cases. "I have a certain insight into what their lives are like outside of the courtroom," he says.
Active with numerous trial-lawyer associations, Letro says lawyers should be advocates for legislation that prevents unsafe practices and products.
"Civil trial lawyers are the last line of defense between public safety and consumer protection," he says.
Letro's legal career came full circle when he was asked by UB Law to be involved in its working courtroom, which was named in his honor in 2002 in recognition of his $1 million gift.
"It seemed natural to me," he recalls, "because I spent more time in the courtroom than the classroom."
Jodi Sokolowski

The thing Lukasik, a managing partner at Cantor Lukasik Dolce & Panepinto PC, cherishes most about his law-school education is the degree to which he was challenged by his professors.
"I was taught not to be afraid to take on difficult assignments," he recalls.
That's what made him able to face such challenges as spending his first 12 years practicing in New York City, appearing regularly before the federal district court and 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
"But for the foundation I built at UB," he says, "I would have been intimidated and would never have even tried to do something like that," he recalls. UB, he adds, "had a big role in my upbringing as a lawyer."
Lukasik excelled among his peers despite battling depression on and off. He dealt with his own problems, but also decided that he had to help others who had the same problem.
"The statistics of lawyers with either depression or anxiety disorders are really surprising," he says. "Studies estimate that nearly 25 percent of attorneys suffer from depression - more than two-and-a-half times the national average."
Whether it's the law-firm culture, with its high stress and enormous levels of responsibility, or the overachieving Type-A personalities who are drawn to the job, lawyers are particularly susceptible to these types of problems.
"There are certain personality types that go into law: overachievers, perfectionists, idealists, neurotic people or argumentative people," Lukasik says. "Those traits are rewarded by the law, but they're also the bricks in the wall of depression."
He created www.lawyerswithdepression.com to help lawyers who find themselves in a similar situation, directing them to resources and information. The Web site has received attention from the New York State Bar Association, the Wall Street Journal and many legal publications.
"I love being a lawyer," Lukasik says, "but there can be stress and tragedy in every single file. That's what makes it so nerve-wracking, but also so rewarding."
Terri Parsell Hilmey

Mahoney, when asked about the considerable achievements that led to his Distinguished Alumni Award, would rather brag about his children.
"They're all such fine, accomplished young men," the retired state Supreme Court justice says of sons David, a retired Navy captain, Neal, a public defender in Wyoming County, and John, who heads the Victims of Crime Office in Richmond, Va.
He won't even take credit for how well they turned out.
"Well, it's all thanks to my wife, Heidi," he says. "She's the guiding force. She got her Ph.D. at UB too, and she taught those boys that you shouldn't be so concerned about what you can acquire, but rather how you can serve and help other people."
As for his own career, he credits UB Law, and the professors he had there, with shaping his mindset and giving him "a very fine education."
"I went in as a solid Republican kid and emerged as a civil-rights advocate," says Mahoney.
He remained a Republican but, during the 1960s and '70s, while practicing Offermann Cassano Greco & Slisz, was involved in some of the most important civil-rights legislation in the country, finding himself in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on one occasion. He served as counsel to the Western New York NAACP, "doing a lot of work surrounding the school integration case, which was forever in federal court. It went on and on - it spent nearly 20 years in federal court."
Mahoney is a Renaissance man - an avid reader, championship golfer and squash player, and artist. Mahoney's cartoons grace each monthly issue of the Bar Association of Erie County's newsletter, and his caricatures of past BAEC presidents are on display at the association's offices.
Serving as president of the BAEC from 1991-92, he was able to exercise great discretion with respect to his own caricature. "That was by far the most handsome one I did," he recalls. "I was kind to myself."
-Terri Parsell Hilmey

Although Mutua is not a UB Law alumnus, the Kenya native's contributions as interim dean, professor and director of the school's Buffalo Human Rights Center have earned him an award.
"When one works at an institution, one doesn't expect to be rewarded in this way. It's really humbling," he says. "I get paid for what I love to do. It feels like a privilege."
Educated primarily in Africa, Mutua earned his law degree at Harvard Law School in 1987.
"Certainly the journey that I've traveled is a long one - from Kenya to the United States, both challenging and enjoyable. It's made me grow in ways that I didn't anticipate," Mutua says.
Highlights of his legal career include stints as a visiting professor at institutions around the world, his role as co-chair of the American Society of International Law's 2000 conference and his chairmanship of Kenya's Task Force on the Establishment of a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission.
"The seed of the work I do today was planted in me at a young age. I was always very aware of powerlessness in society and the excesses of government against the population," he says.
Mutua has often worked as a liaison between the underserved and the agencies designed to assist them. No stranger to human-rights concerns, he's written numerous scholarly articles and led initiatives on the topic.
His constant goal, at UB Law and across the world, is to teach future lawyers to "zealously protect the interests of clients ... in the confines of society and humanity."
"We must teach our students to always maintain a moral compass in the practice of law," he says. "Otherwise, law won't support the democracy that we live in."
Jodi Sokolowski

O'Donnell has been serving the populace, in both the private and public sectors, for her entire career.
"I think it's part of my DNA. It's what I find rewarding," she says.
O'Donnell says her foundation in constitutional law gave her analytical and critical training to "not merely accept the dogma or holding of a case but to understand ... its broader implications."
She welcomes the opportunity to form policies that will impact a number of people for the better, such as when she co-chaired a task force on human trafficking that led to a law passed last year.
"Currently we're involved in every cutting-edge issue affecting criminal justice," she said of her role as commissioner of the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. The agency collects and analyzes statewide crime data, operates the DNA databank and criminal fingerprint file, accreditates forensic laboratories and administers the state's Sex Offender Registry.
O'Donnell also serves as assistant secretary to the governor, overseeing the state's public-safety and criminal-justice agencies.
"The challenge is in technology and what we can better do to coordinate our law-enforcement agencies and build connections to our community organizations," she said. "It will hopefully make the state safer in the process."
A Buffalo native, she's working to change Buffalo's and Rochester's "unfortunate distinction" of having the highest crime rates in the state.
O'Donnell, who went to law school after 10 years as a social worker, said UB Law "opened new opportunities" for her.
A longtime federal prosecutor, she was the first woman to serve as U.S. attorney for the Western District of New York and in 2006 made a run for state attorney general. She took a break from public service in 2001 to work as a litigation partner at Hodgson Russ LLP.
O'Donnell, who is married to state Supreme Court Justice Hon. John O'Donnell, was UB Law Alumni Association president in 2004.
- Jodi Sokolowski