Law school unveils Colucci Buffalo Law Review office suite

A major gift by UB School of Law alumnus Anthony J. Colucci Jr., ’58, and his wife, Carmela, will memorialize the couple’s commitment to the advancement of legal scholarship.

The gift has been used for renovation of the Buffalo Law Review office suite on the sixth floor of the law school in John Lord O’Brian Hall, and to endow the Anthony J. Colucci Jr. Esq. ’58 Law Review Scholarship. Joshua Mertzlufft, ’18, current editor-in-chief of the Buffalo Law Review, was named the inaugural scholarship recipient.

Members of the law school and the Western New York community gathered in the vestibule outside the refinished marquee to the Law Review offices on Sept. 28 for the unveiling of the Anthony J. Colucci Jr. Esq. ’58 Buffalo Law Review Suite. Guests included Canisius College President John J. Hurley, UB President Satish K. Tripathi, law school Dean Aviva Abramovsky, and various members of the judiciary, as well as Colucci’s colleagues, family and friends.

Tripathi opened the ceremony by expressing thanks to Colucci.

“Tony, thank you for your support. You have played an instrumental role in advancing the mission of our law school and the university as a whole,” he said. “Your sustained support of your alma mater is a shining example of the significant and meaningful impact our alumni can have on UB through their generosity and continued engagement with the university.”

Colucci was a member of the Buffalo Law Review’s editorial staff as a law student, and the only law student to have published two articles in the journal within months of each other: Note, “Monopolies — Restraint of Trade — Exclusive Automobile Dealerships,” 7 Buff. L. Rev. 334 (1958) and Comment, “Municipal Tort Liability: Notice of Defect — The Sidewalk Cases,” 7 Buff. L. Rev. 485 (1958).

Colucci has had a long and successful career in banking, corporate, finance and real estate law. He was admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and is a member of the Florida and Pennsylvania bars. An active member of the Erie County and New York State Bar associations, he served as president of the Catholic Lawyers Guild and the Marshall Lawyers Club, and as a director and officer of the Bar Association of Erie County. He is also a past president of the Erie County Bar Foundation, and a past president of the UB Law Alumni Association.

He has achieved the highest Martindale-Hubbell rating (AV) and was named to Martindale-Hubbell’s Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. In 1995, he received the UB Law Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumnus Award for Community Service, and he and his wife were each recognized by The Buffalo News as “Citizen of the Year.”

“It’s an obligation of each and every lawyer to understand our responsibilities and our assumptions under the Constitution,” Colucci said at the ceremony. “There’s a very thin line between freedom of speech and personal liberty. Lawyers, judges, jurors, officers of the court: they stand for the liberty of all of us.

“I was a Depression baby, and I was everything a Depression baby stood for, which is collegiality, intrinsic love and respect for your family and your bloodline, and the hope to have freedom.”

Ranked in the top 50 nationwide among student-edited law journals for its impact on legal scholarship, the Buffalo Law Review selects its students in a highly competitive process; they often represent the best and brightest of their class. Service requires exceptional grades, finely honed skills in legal research, and the ability to write clearly and concisely. The Buffalo Law Review publishes five issues per year, with each issue containing articles from scholars, practitioners and judges, as well as pieces on contemporary legal issues written by student members.

“When we are talking about law, what language is more important than Latin?” Abramovsky asked prior to unveiling the suite. “And so: Bis dat qui cito dat. It means, ‘Gifts given without hesitation are twice as good.’

“Tony, your willingness to give this gift now, without hesitation, at a time when it’s needed, makes it twice as good in our eyes and in society’s.”