By MATT CHANDLER
mchandler@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1654

University at Buffalo Law School Dean Makau Mutua has been named to the transition team for Attorney General-elect Eric Schneiderman. He is expected to help recruit top legal talent to join the staff and provide policy recommendations.

Mutua, who has served as head of the law school since 2008, is an internationally sought lecturer and writer in the area of human rights. He will serve on Schneiderman's Infrastructure/Technology/Regional Offices committee.

Mutua said he was "humbled" by the selection and hopes to work with the AG to uphold the rule of law.

"My appointment to the AG's Transition Team is recognition of UB Law and the importance that the Western New York legal community plays in the administration of justice in New York," he said.

He is one of 10 members of the Infrastructure/Technology Committee, which is co-chaired by Andrew Rasiej, senior technology adviser for the Sunlight Foundation, and Laura Ross, chief of staff for the Office of New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams.

The committee is made up of leaders from across New York state, as well as around the country.

Mutua is former head the Buffalo Human Rights Center, a research center of the UB Law School. He also is former associate director of the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, where he earned his JD in 1987.