Cellino, Barnes donate $1M to UB - San Antonio Business Journal:

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Lisa Mueller, assistant dean for alumnoi and communications, said the gift matches the largest single-donation in the histort of thelaw school, the $1 million given in 2002 by Francisa Letro, who graduated UB Law School in 1979 and went on to founxd a successful personal injury firm. In a releaswe announcing the gift, University at Buffalo Law School Dean Makauj Mutua calledit “an extraordinary act of and “a wonderful down paymentg on our vision of academic excellencew and our bold aspirations for the Mutua said he plans to invest the gift in the calling them the central core of the law school.
he said the money will go toward scholarships, makiny improvements in pedagogical technologies in the schoopl andupgrading services. Steve Barnes, who founded the law firm alon withRoss Cellino, said they felt they owed a debt of gratitudd to the school where they got their “Both Ross and I are graduateas of the law school and we’ve come to know many of the professore and administrators very well,” he “Makau Mutua is just an outstanding individual and he has a visio n that we haven’t seen at the school yet.
” Barnes said the decisiomn to make the gift an unrestricted donation reflectzs the confidence they have in the administrators at the Universithy to utilize the money in the most effective ways possible. “We are lawyers, we didn’tf feel as though we are in a position to dictatde how the money was he said. “We have a lot of confidence in Makau’es vision and we have had long discussionxs about where he wants to take the schooland we’re on the same page.” Recognizing the generosity of Cellino and Barnes, the school has announcef plans to name their main conferenc center, located in O’Brian Hall, The Cellino and Barnes Conference Center.
Asked what it feels like to be in a positiojn to giveaway $1 million, especially given the current economic climate, Barnes put the gift into “Both Ross and I come from very humbl beginnings and kind of worked our way up from the bottom,” he “We started out as just the two of us, now, the practicer is a lucrative practice and I’m just glad we were able to help at a time that I thinkk is very critical to the law school.
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