News
July 17, 2017Albany Law School Announces New Board Chair, Trustees
Albany Law School today announced that James E. Hacker ’84 has been named the new Chair of its Board of Trustees. His term was effective July 1, 2017.
The Board also recently welcomed three new members: Jeanine Arden Ornt ’80 as Term Trustee; Kathryn L. Tabner ’91 as Term Trustee; and Sydney Taylor ’18 as Student Trustee.
“An Albany Law School education has always been worth the investment and still is today,” said Chair Hacker. “First and foremost we will continue to focus on providing high-quality legal training, which is the foundation on which the law school rests.”
He succeeds Daniel P. Nolan ’78, who was appointed Chair four years ago and oversaw the transition in leadership to President and Dean Alicia Ouellette ’94 and the law school’s formal affiliation with the University at Albany in 2015. In the final year of Chair Nolan’s tenure, 90 percent of the Class of 2016 secured employment after graduation, and bar passage leaped 14.5 percentage points, raising Albany Law School above the New York State average.
“I am fortunate to be following Dan Nolan’s chairmanship,” said Chair Hacker. “He has been a great mentor. Employment and bar passage rates are trending upward, and I plan to build upon that momentum.”
Chair Hacker is a managing partner of E. Stewart Jones Hacker Murphy LLP, where he divides his practice between the areas of commercial litigation and plaintiff’s personal injury. He also currently serves as president of the Albany County Bar Association and regional vice president of the New York State Trial Lawyers Albany. He is a graduate of Hamilton College and Albany Law School, Class of 1984. As a law student, he worked as a janitor for beloved maintenance superintendent John DeMatteo.
Ms. Arden Ornt owns her own firm. Previously she served as the chief legal officer of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Before that she established the first university-wide offices of general counsel at Case Western Reserve University and the University of Rochester. She served on University of Rochester’s School of Medicine and Dentistry’s faculty where she specialized in health care law. At the University of Rochester, she also served as the general counsel of the Medical Center and of Strong Health for 15 years.
Ms. Tabner clerked in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York after law school, then practiced at Shearman & Sterling, and Linklaters in New York City. She was on the editorial board of the Albany Law Review. Her father John W. Tabner ’51, and uncle James Tabner ’42, also graduated from Albany Law School.
Ms. Taylor is a member of the Albany Law Journal of Science & Technology and served as public relations chair for the Black Law Students Association (BLSA). She is also involved in the law school’s moot court program. Ms. Taylor has interned at Bond, Schoeneck & King; the Office of the Albany County District Attorney, Appeals Bureau; the New York State Office of the Attorney General, Litigation Bureau; and Gibbons & Stadler. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University at Buffalo.
