Jim Bennett to be Honored with Clarence Chamber of Commerce Lifetime Achievement Award

Born in Western New York to parents who were educators made giving back to the community a way of life for Jim Bennett.  After college at Bowling Green in Ohio, Jim served overseas in the Army for two years achieving the rank of Captain and receiving the Army Commendation Medal. Then it was law school at Ohio State that started a forty year legal career.  Practicing in the corporate and commercial field, Jim is a founding partner and senior partner in the Bennett Schechter Arcuri & Will LLP law firm.  For the last several years he has been listed in the Upstate New York Super Lawyers publication and has the highest rating provided by the Martindale Hubbell lawyer rating.

Moving to Clarence in 1982, Jim has been very active in both the Clarence and Western New York communities.  In Clarence, he coached in the Clarence Girls Softball League for more than twenty years while also serving as a director of the league during that time.  While serving on a committee to pursue the recreational use of the “Thunderbird” Girl Scout camp, Jim negotiated the purchase of that land that was turned over to the town and now houses the Clarence Nature Center.

For more that thirty-five years, Jim has been a Lion, holding virtually every local office in Lionism and received the prestigious Robert Uplinger Distinguished Services Award for his work in Lionism.  Jim served for many years as a director and also served two terms as President of Clarence’s Brookfield County Club.  As a director of the Clarence Chamber of Commerce for the past several years, Jim chairs the Chamber’s Business Roundtable and the Legislative/Governance programs.  Clarence High School recently instituted a new academy called the Clarence High School Academy of Business and Finance and Jim sits on its Advisory Board.

Jim is one of the founders of Family Promise of WNY, which is a homeless shelter involving churches of all denominations to assist in housing homeless families.  He has served as a Trustee for the twenty years of that organization’s Buffalo existence in addition to previously serving as its President.  Finally, Jim served for more than twelve years as a director of the Pro-Zoo Board for the Buffalo Zoo assisting in the Zoo’s fundraising endeavors