Magavern to Receive Jaeckle Award from UB Law School, UB Alumni Association

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- James L. Magavern, a member of the law firm Magavern, Magavern & Grimm LLP, will receive the Jaeckle Award, the highest honor bestowed by the UB Law School and its Alumni Association, at the 26th Annual Alumni Convocation and 2001 Jaeckle Award Luncheon to be held at 12:30 p.m. Nov. 3 in the Hyatt Regency Buffalo.

The Jaeckle Award is given annually to an individual who has distinguished himself or herself and has made significant contributions to the UB Law School and the legal profession. It is named after its first recipient, the late Edwin F. Jaeckle, a UB alumnus, who for decades was a towering figure in the legal profession and in local, state and national politics. Previous winners have included Vincent E. Doyle, Matthew J. Jasen, Manly Fleischmann, John T. Curtin and M. Dolores Denman.

Dean R. Nils Olsen Jr. will present the award to Magavern at the luncheon, which will follow a morning-long continuing legal-education program.

A 1959 graduate of the UB Law School, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Buffalo Law Review, Magavern has concentrated his practice in health care, corporate, and state and local government law.

He has served as counsel to the New York State comptroller, county attorney of Erie County and assistant attorney general of New York State.

In the 1970s, Magavern served as a legal consultant and expert for the United Nations Development Program in the Philippines and as a legal advisor on national housing policy for the government of South Korea. He also served as a senior fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu in its program on law and the city.

An adjunct professor in the Law School, Magavern has taught full-time and part-time at UB since 1963, and is a member of the Law School's Dean's Advisory Council. He has written extensively on the role of local governments, municipal planning and urban development.

He has served as president of the Bar Association of Erie County and as a member of the New York State Commission on Government Integrity. He has co-chaired the Citizen's Council on Human Relations and was chair of the City of Buffalo Charter Revision Commission.

The law school's 26th annual alumni convocation, to be held from 8:30 a.m. to noon, will focus on appellate practice and procedures and the ethics implications of high-profile cases.

Speakers will be Lucinda M. Finley, UB professor of law; Carl M. Darnall, chief clerk of the court for the Appellate Division, Fourth Department; Hon. Eugene F. Pigott Jr., presiding justice for the Appellate Division, Fourth Department; Hon. Samuel L. Green, senior associate justice for the Appellate Division, Fourth Department; Hon. Christopher J. Burns, associate justice for the Appellate Division, Fourth Department; Denise E. O'Donnell, a partner in Hodgson Russ, L.L.P.; Dan Herbeck, a reporter for The Buffalo News; Hon. Jerome C. Gorski, associate justice for the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, and Hon. John M. Curran, a partner in Phillips, Lytle, Hitchcock, Blaine & Huber, L.L.P.

Attendance at the convocation has been approved for three continuing legal-education credits.

The cost of the event is $65 per person for law alumni association members and $75 per person for all others. For further information, contact Ilene Fleischmann at 645-2107.