Law

Gubernatorial appointment of judges to New York's highest court -- a process many legal scholars and officials believe is better than popular election -- has choked off access for most of the best candidates the state has to offer, according to a legal scholar from the University at Buffalo Law School.

A drug-addled, suicidal rock star, a vengeful band mate charged with murder and a greedy son seeking to cash in on a million dollar life insurance policy make up the cast of characters in the case problem for this year's Buffalo Niagara mock trial competition hosted by the University at Buffalo Law School on Nov. 11-14 in the courtrooms of Buffalo City Court.

Since joining University Police as chief in July 2006, Jerry Schoenle has brought a level of professionalism to the University at Buffalo that has inspired improvements in his own and other SUNY departments.

From some of the best colleges and universities in the nation, and with grade point averages and LSAT scores among the highest in University at Buffalo Law School history, the UB Law School's newest class of students began their law school careers this month positioned for academic success.

The University at Buffalo Law School is No. 1 in Thomson Reuter's "Super Lawyers" ranking of law graduates practicing in Upstate New York, which includes 54 of the 62 counties in New York State. This is in addition to the UB Law School's 2010 national ranking, where it placed 48th out of the 180 law schools in the country that produced Super Lawyers.

A University at Buffalo researcher will spend the next two years studying post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the long-term effects of Hurricane Katrina on police officers who worked during the disaster.

Five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, James N. Jensen, PhD, University at Buffalo professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering, says that probably the biggest lesson learned from that disaster was that municipalities and citizens now take orders to evacuate much more seriously. Jensen was one of six UB researchers that visited the Gulf Coast soon after Katrina hit, as part of a National Science Foundation-funded reconnaissance mission organized by UB's Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research.

A new University at Buffalo Law School course will use an innovative technique called "mindfulness reflection" to help students cultivate honesty, wisdom and humility, values central to the classical tradition of lawyers who saw themselves as public servants devoted to a public purpose, along with skilled advocacy for their clients.

Errol E. Meidinger, professor and vice dean for research and faculty development in the University at Buffalo Law School, has been named director of the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy.

Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, associate professor of law at the University at Buffalo Law School, whose research on the intersection of religion and law has earned international recognition, has been named a fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation, one of the top academic honors available to researchers and academics of all disciplines.