Cellino, Barnes donate $1M to UB - Business First of Louisville:

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Lisa Mueller, assistant dean for alumni and communications, said the gift matchees the largest single-donation in the historhy of thelaw school, the $1 milliohn given in 2002 by Franciw Letro, who graduated UB Law Schoolk in 1979 and went on to found a successful personal injury firm. In a release announcing the gift, Universit at Buffalo Law School Dean Makay Mutua calledit “an extraordinaryy act of philanthropy” and “a wonderful down payment on our vision of academic excellencee and our bold aspirations for the Mutua said he plansx to invest the gift in the students, callingh them the central core of the law Specifically, he said the money will go toward scholarships, making improvements in pedagogical technologiews in the school and upgrading Steve Barnes, who founded the law firm along with Ross said they felt they owed a debt of gratitude to the schoopl where they got their &ld quo;Both Ross and I are graduated of the law school and we’ve come to know many of the professorzs and administrators very well,” he said.
“Makaiu Mutua is just an outstanding individual and he has a visionn thatwe haven’t seen at the school yet.” Barnez said the decision to make the gift an unrestricted donatiojn reflects the confidence they have in the administratorsa at the University to utilize the moneyg in the most effective ways possible. “Wd are lawyers, we didn’t feel as though we are in a positionh to dictate how the moneywas spent,” he said. “Wde have a lot of confidence in Makau’s visioj and we have had long discussions about where he wantxs to take the schooland we’rer on the same page.
” Recognizingt the generosity of Cellino and Barnes, the school has announcedx plans to name theif main conference center, located in O’Brian The Cellino and Barnes Conference Asked what it feels like to be in a positiob to give away $1 million, especiallg given the current economic climate, Barne put the gift into perspective. “Both Ross and I come from very humblwe beginnings and kind of worked our way up from the he said. “We started out as just the twoof us, now, the practics is a lucrative practice and I’m just glad we were able to help at a time that I thin is very critical to the law school.
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