Civil-rights attorney John Payton will be the featured speaker at the University at Buffalo Law School's 2009 Mitchell Lecture, to be held Oct. 22 at 2 p.m.

Payton, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund since 2008, will give a lecture entitled "Race, Law and Politics in America: Have We Become a Post-Racial Society?" His talk will begin with a review of developments during the post-Civil War Reconstruction period.

The annual endowed lecture series is named for James McCormick Mitchell, an 1897 graduate of the law school. Payton was invited by UB Law Dean Makau Mutua, with whom he served as an election observer in South Africa in 1994.

In other UB Law news, a memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Oct. 17 for Virginia Leary, a SUNY Distinguished Service Professor Emerita who spent 19 years on the UB Law faculty. Leary died April 8 in Geneva, Switzerland, where she had lived since retiring in 1995.

A reception will follow at 12:30 p.m.

Leary was a renowned scholar in the field of international law and served on the executive council of the American Society of International Law. She held several international visiting-professor positions, and consulted extensively for non-government and intergovernmental organizations including the United Nations.

Both events will be held in Room 106, John Lord O'Brian Hall, on UB's North Campus. For more information on the memorial service, contact Rebecca Donoghue at 645-2052 or ray1@buffalo.edu.

Phillips marks 175th with reception, book

In recognition of the law firm's 175th anniversary, Sept. 17 was declared Phillips Lytle Day in Buffalo and Erie County.

Phillips Lytle marked the milestone with a reception that evening at the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society. Among those in attendance were Rep. Brian Higgins and Erie County Clerk Kathy Hochul, who presented proclamations in connection with the firm's anniversary. Orsamus Marshall, who started the firm today known as Phillips Lytle LLP in 1834 in Buffalo, was a founding member of the Historical Society.

In connection with the anniversary, area writer Dick Hirsch wrote a book titled "Firm Beliefs: The First 175 Years of Phillips Lytle." The book is not available commercially. Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th president of the United States, was once an attorney at the firm, as were Wilson Bissell, Daniel Kenefick, George Phillips and William Lytle.

The firm now operates from headquarters at One HSBC Center in downtown Buffalo, and has additional offices in Rochester, Jamestown, Fredonia, Albany, New York City and Garden City.

Phillips Lytle attorneys James Whitcomb, Amy McShane and Jodie Ryan recently contributed to the American Bar Association publication "A State by State Guide to Construction and Design Law." Whitcomb and Ryan co-wrote an article on construction and design law in New York, while McShane served as a real-properties-acquisitions editor.

Program for first offenders wins grant

First Time/Last Time, a Western New York program offering alternatives to incarceration, was awarded a $50,000 grant through the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo.

The program has been operational for three decades, providing programming and direct services to young first-time criminal offenders. First Time/Last Time serves youth between the ages of 16 and 21 who are involved in the criminal-justice system for the first time.

The organization has a success rate of more than 90 percent, according to a press release, and works with hundreds of young people annually.

Family Justice Center wins grant, song too

A Texas foundation has awarded $10,000 plus a specially commissioned song to the Family Justice Center of Erie County.

 

The FJC was one of more than 700 nonprofit organizations that submitted poems about their mission to be considered for a 2009 Heart and Soul grant from the The CTK Foundation Philanthropic Fund. It's one of four applicants for whom the band Los Lonely Boys will write a song based on their submitted poems. The winning applicants will also receive an autographed acoustic guitar to be used for fundraising.

FJC Executive Director Linda Ray said agency staff are "thrilled and honored" about the grant award.

"We try to think of creative ways of getting our message out, and so of course we were attracted immediately to this wonderful opportunity."

The Family Justice Center offers centralized services for victims of domestic violence and their children in Erie County.

Jaeckle hosts seminar on land development

Jaeckle Fleischmann & Mugel LLP will hold a half-day forum for professionals in the real estate, development, municipal and economic-development areas Oct. 9 at the Embassy Suites Hotel in the Avant Building.

David Perry, director of the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago, will give an opening address at the event, the Western New York Economic and Land Development Forum. The opening session will also include the panel discussion "UB 2020: The Architecture of Regional Resurgence" facilitated by Robert Shibley, director of The Urban Design Project and professor of architecture and planning at the University at Buffalo.

Two concurrent breakout sessions will follow the morning panel: "The Framework for Regional Growth: An Update" and "Historic Tax Credits & Developments: New Opportunities."

For more information or to register, go to www.jaeckle.com.

Lawyers from Hiscock, Lipsitz in Best Lawyers

Hiscock & Barclay LLP and Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria LLP were among the Western New York law firms whose attorneys were included in the 2010 Best Lawyers in America publication.

From Hiscock & Barclay, Vincent Hauber was included in this year's publication, in the category of real estate law.

And 17 Lipsitz Green Scime & Cambria LLP lawyers made the cut: Paul Cambria Jr., in First Amendment law; James Scime, personal-injury litigation; Herbert Greenman, criminal defense; Patrick O'Reilly, family law; Michael Schiavone, corporate law; Laraine Kelley, personal-injury litigation; Richard Weisbeck Jr., personal-injury litigation; Mark Stulmaker, employee-benefits law; Barry Covert, white-collar criminal defense; Christopher Mattingly, family law; Robert Borneanaz, labor-and-employment law; Thomas Mercure, personal-injury litigation; George Riedel Jr., elder law; Roger Wilcox Jr., white-collar criminal defense; Richard Lipsitz Sr., labor-and-employment law; Carl Green, personal-injury litigation; and Eugene Salisbury, labor-and-employment law.

Magavern lawyers cited as Super Lawyers

Six attorneys from Magavern Magavern and Grimm LLP were named to the 2009 Super Lawyers Upstate edition.

Cheryl Smith Fisher was included in the business litigation and top 25 women attorneys categories; James Magavern for municipal law; William Magavern II in business/corporate; Edward Markarian, for appellate practice; Bruce Reinoso, in elder law; and Thomas Schofield, in the business/corporate category.

 

- Compiled by Matt Chandler