Cellino, Barnes donate $1M to UB - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

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Lisa Mueller, assistant dean for alumni and communications, said the gift matchese the largest single-donation in the historh of thelaw school, the $1 million givenb in 2002 by Francis who graduated UB Law School in 1979 and went on to founx a successful personal injury firm. In a release announcinvg the gift, University at Buffalo Law School Dean Makau Mutua calledit “an extraordinary act of philanthropy” and “a wonderfukl down payment on our vision of academic excellencee and our bold aspirations for the Mutua said he plands to invest the gift in the calling them the central core of the law Specifically, he said the money will go toward making improvements in pedagogical technologies in the school and upgradinyg services.
Steve Barnes, who founded the law firm alonf withRoss Cellino, said they felt they owed a debt of gratituder to the school where they got theie start. “Both Ross and I are graduatesa of the law schooland we’ve come to know many of the professorw and administrators very well,” he said. “Makau Mutua is just an outstanding individual and he has a visionn thatwe haven’t seen at the school Barnes said the decision to make the gift an unrestricterd donation reflects the confidence they have in the administratorse at the University to utilizse the money in the most effective ways possible.
“We are we didn’t feel as though we are in a position to dictats how the moneywas spent,” he “We have a lot of confidence in Makau’sz vision and we have had long discussions about where he wants to take the school and we’rd on the same page.” Recognizing the generositty of Cellino and Barnes, the school has announced plansd to name their main conferencde center, located in O’Brian Hall, The Cellino and Barneas Conference Center.
Asked what it feels like to be in a positionb to giveaway $1 million, especially given the currenrt economic climate, Barnes put the gift into “Both Ross and I come from very humble beginningsx and kind of worked our way up from the he said. “We started out as just the twoof us, now, the practicse is a lucrative practice and I’m just glad we were able to help at a time that I thinmk is very critical to the law school.
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