Andrew Brown joins Board of Regents |
On Board Online • March 26, 2012
By Cathy Woodruff
Senior writer
Rochester attorney T. Andrew Brown was elected to the state Board of Regents during a joint session of the state Legislature on March 13.
He will succeed Milton L. Cofield, a Rochester scientist who has served as vice chancellor of the board since 2009. His five-year term representing the Seventh Judicial District will begin on April 1.
Also during the special legislative session, incumbent regents James R. Tallon Jr. of Binghamton, who represents the Third Judicial District, and Charles R. Bendit of Manhattan, who represents the First Judicial District, were re-elected to their seats.
Tallon, a former assemblyman who now is president of the United Hospital Fund of New York, has been a Regent since 2002 and will begin his third term next month.
Bendit, a real estate investor who is finishing his first five- year term, is co-founder and chief executive of Taconic Investment Partners.
Brown was among five candidates for the seventh district seat who were interviewed in February by a panel led by Assembly education and higher education committee chairs Catherine Nolan and Deborah Glick.
While all three candidates were easily confirmed during the joint session, Assembly Republicans objected to the process, which they say cements control over appointments with the Assembly Democratic Majority led by Speaker Sheldon Silver of Manhattan and leaves no room for debate. While Republicans narrowly control the 62-member Senate, the Democrats’ strong majority in the 150-member Assembly guarantee that they have the majority in a joint session.
Assembly Republican Minority Leader Brian Kolb also argues that the state’s education commissioner, who is selected by the Regents, should be appointed by the governor.
Brown is a founder and managing partner of Brown and Hutchinson law firm, which is among the largest minority-owned law firms in central and western New York. He has served as an adjunct professor of political science at the State University of New York at Brockport and a law instructor at Monroe Community College.
His professional experience includes six years with the Monroe County Attorney’s Office. He was the first African-American president of the Monroe County Bar Association and is active in several other professional bar organizations. Brown also has been an advisor and officer with community groups including the Hillside Children’s Center, New York State Human Rights Advisory Council, and the Monroe Community College Paralegal Studies Program.
He received his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School and a bachelor of arts in political science from Syracuse University.