Erma Hallett Jaeckle To Be Honored By UB Law School

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Erma Hallett Jaeckle, whose legal career spanned more than 40 years in the public and corporate sectors, will receive the 1999 Edwin F. Jaeckle Award, the highest honor given by the UB Law School and its Law Alumni Association, at a luncheon at 12:30 p.m. Nov. 6 in the Hyatt Regency Buffalo.

Jaeckle, who graduated from the UB Law School in 1936, will receive the award following the law school's 24th annual alumni convocation, which will run from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Hyatt.

The annual award, named for Jaeckle's late husband, a 1915 graduate of the UB Law School, is presented to an individual who has distinguished himself or herself and made significant contributions to the law school and the legal profession.

After she graduated in 1936 as one of only four women in her class, Jaeckle worked for a negligence attorney and then as a patent attorney with Carborundum Corp. She joined the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II, spending more than four years in the legal department of the Merchant Marine Division.

After the war, she joined the real property department at Moot and Sprague. Following the death of her first husband in 1950, she and her two young sons moved to St. Petersburg, Fla., to be near her family.

Over the next 25 years, she worked as a trial lawyer, specializing in matrimonial and custody matters; formed the area's first all-female law firm, and was one of the first women to serve on the executive board of the St. Petersburg Bar Association.

Active in the community, she was a founder and first president of Altrusa International, a women's service organization, and a founder and first president of the St. Petersburg Business and Professional Women's Club.

In 1977, she married Edwin F. Jaeckle and returned to Buffalo, where she retired from the legal profession.

A major gift from the Jaeckles helped to create the Edwin F. Jaeckle Center for State Government, through which more than 200 law students have provided services to more than 60 government agencies.

The convocation, entitled "Practicing Law in the New Millennium: Emerging Trends in Professional Ethics," will focus on significant changes in the ethical and procedural framework of the U.S. legal system.

Terrence M. Connors ('71), a founding partner in the Buffalo firm of Connors & Vilardo, will review recent trends and innovations in the New York State jury system and the jury-selection process in civil and criminal cases.

A panel composed of the Hon. Patrick H. NeMoyer ('77), Jeffrey A. Spencer ('72) and Rosalie Stoll Bailey ('73) will discuss the trend toward active case management, focusing on Erie County's experience with the Expedited Matrimonial Part -- now being copied in counties across the state -- and the new Commercial Division of New York State Supreme Court-County of Erie.

NeMoyer, a Supreme Court Justice, supervises the Expedited Matrimonial Part and the Commercial Division of state Supreme Court.

Spencer is referee in the Commercial Division. Bailey is matrimonial referee in the Expedited Matrimonial Part.

In a point-counterpoint-style presentation, Grace Marie Ange ('57) and Stephen Barnes ('83) will discuss the legal, ethical and practical aspects of attorney advertising.

Ange is chair of the Erie County Trial Lawyers Association's Committee on Attorney Professionalism. Barnes is a partner in Cellino & Barnes and a senior member of the firm's management committee.

The program has been approved for continuing legal-education credit.

Corporate underwriters are Harold C. Brown & Co. Inc.; Buyers & Kaczor Reporting Services Inc.; Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Co., and HSBC Bank USA.

Registration deadline for the event is Nov. 1. Tickets are $75 per person and $50 for Law Alumni Association members who have paid their annual dues for 1999-2000. Corporate tables of 10 are available.

For further information, contact Ilene Fleischmann at 645-2107.