Finley to step down as vice provost

Lucinda M. Finley, vice provost for faculty affairs for the past nine years, will leave the administrative post at the end of the current academic year to resume her faculty role as a teacher and scholar in the UB Law School.

An internal search for her successor as vice provost will be launched later this spring.

In a message to the UB community announcing Finley’s decision to return to the faculty full time, Provost Charles F. Zukoski said Finley “can be proud of her accomplishments in building strength in the UB faculty — the foundation of a great university. As vice provost, Lucinda enhanced greatly UB’s goals of promoting faculty excellence and recruiting and retaining excellent faculty.”

“Lucinda’s commitment to faculty success, recognition and development has greatly advanced UB’s mission to achieve academic excellence,” Zukoski said. “She has provided meaningful advice and assistance to faculty members preparing for the promotion and tenure process, improved the clarity and transparency of information about the process, as well as coordinated that process university-wide.”

Zukoski also praised Finley’s work helping to obtain recognition for faculty by leading the nomination process for internal, SUNY and national awards. Nearly 50 faculty members have been appointed to the ranks of SUNY Distinguished Professor during her tenure as vice provost.

Among Finley’s other accomplishments cited by Zukoski were expansion of the new faculty orientation program, creation of a department chair workshop series and workshops to provide search committee training, and the popular dual career partner hiring assistance program.

Frank Raichle Professor of Trial and Appellate Advocacy in the Law School, Finley has been a member of the law faculty since 1990. Her research and teaching have focused on tort law, women and the law, reproductive rights, employment discrimination and First Amendment and equal protection law.

She is the author of numerous law review articles and book chapters on tort law and women and the law, and is co-author of a leading casebook, “Tort Law & Practice” (Lexis Publications, third edition 2006). She is also active as a litigator and appellate advocate in the federal courts, and frequently testifies before the U.S. Congress and state legislative committees. She was the first female lawyer from Western New York to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.