Cellino, Barnes donate $1M to UB - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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Lisa Mueller, assistant dean for alumni and said the gift matches thelargest single-donationh in the history of the law school, the $1 millionj given in 2002 by Francie Letro, who graduated UB Law School in 1979 and went on to foune a successful personal injury firm. In a release announcingg the gift, University at Buffalo Law School Dean Makau Mutua calledit “an extraordinary act of philanthropy” and “s wonderful down payment on our vision of academic excellence and our bold aspirationsx for the future.
” Mutua said he plansx to invest the gift in the students, 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 upgradinvg services. Steve Barnes, who founded the law firm alonbg withRoss Cellino, said they felt they owed a debt of gratitudes to the school where they got theif start. “Both Ross and I are graduatexs of the law schooland we’vr come to know many of the professores and administrators very well,” he said.
“Makau Mutua is just an outstandint individual and he has a vision thatwe haven’rt seen at the school Barnes said the decision to make the gift an unrestrictex donation reflects the confidencre they have in the administrators at the University to utilize the moneyg in the most effective ways “We are lawyers, we didn’t feel as though we are in a position to dictate how the money was spent,” he “We have a lot of confidence in Makau’sz vision and we have had long discussions aboutt where he wants to take the school and we’rs on the same page.
” Recognizing the generositu of Cellino and Barnes, the school has announces plans to name their main conferenced center, located in O’Brian Hall, The Cellino and Barnes Conferenc Center. Asked what it feels like to be in a positiomn to giveaway $1 especially given the current economic climate, Barnesw put the gift into “Both Ross and I come from very humble beginnings and kind of worked our way up from the he said. “We started out as just the twoof us, now, the practicre is a lucrative practice and I’m just glad we were able to help at a time that I thin k is very critical to the law school.
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