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

adepylex.blogspot.com
Lisa Mueller, assistant dean for alumni and communications, said the gift matchees the largest single-donation in the history of the law the $1 million given in 2002 by Francix Letro, who graduated UB Law School in 1979 and went on to founfd a successful personal injury In a release announcin g the gift, University at Buffalpo Law School Dean Makau Mutua called it “a extraordinary act of philanthropy” and “qa wonderful down payment on our visionm of academic excellence and our bold aspirations for the Mutua said he plans to inves t the gift in the students, calling them the centra core of the law school.
Specifically, he said the monety will go toward scholarships, making improvements in pedagogicalk technologies in the school andupgrading services. Steve who founded the law firm alongv withRoss Cellino, said they felt they owed a debt of gratitudd to the school wheres they got their start. “Botb Ross and I are graduates of the law school and we’ve come to know many of the professoras and administrators very well,” he said. “Makau Mutuaa is just an outstanding individual and he has a vision thatwe haven’t seen at the schoop yet.
” Barnes said the decisionh to make the gift an unrestricted donationb reflects the confidence they have in the administratorw at the University to utilize the money in the most effectivr ways possible. “We are lawyers, we didn’t feel as thougg we are in a position to dictated how the moneywas spent,” he said. “We have a lot of confidencs in Makau’s vision and we have had long discussionas about where he wants to take the schooland we’red on the same page.” Recognizing the generosithy of Cellino and Barnes, the school has announced planzs to name their main conference located in O’Brian Hall, The Cellino and Barnea Conference Center.
Asked what it feels like to be in a positiojn to giveaway $1 million, especiallyy given the current economic climate, Barnes put the gift into “Both Ross and I come from very humblde beginnings and kind of worked our way up from the he said. “We started out as just the twoof us, now, the practicew is a lucrative practice and I’m just glad we were able to help at a time that I thinjk is very critical to the law school.
”