Albany Law School on the High Court.

• Author: Bonventre, Vincent Martin
• Position: Victoria A. Graffeo

On January 3, 2001, Judge Victoria A. Graffeo took her oath as a Judge of the New York Court of Appeals. Graffeo, ALS class of 1977, spent nearly twenty years in state government, having served in all three branches. Among other positions, she served as Counsel to the Assembly Minority Leader, Solicitor General, State Supreme Court Justice, and then Justice of the Appellate Division.

As she took her place on the Court of Appeals, Judge Graffeo was also taking her place among an elite line of Albany Law School ("ALS") alums who have served with distinction on that distinguished tribunal.(1) Six Albany grads preceded her. Each of the six made a mark. Each of them contributed to the traditional reputation of the Court as a national leader, as one of America's premier courts, as a court whose body of case law includes a disproportionate number of landmarks that have influenced or defined so many areas of the law throughout the country.

In fact, from the outset, Albany Law School's connection with the Court of Appeals has been significant. Ira Harris and Amasa Parker, two of the school's founders, were instrumental in creating and shaping the Court into its current form. Harris, whose career included serving in the U.S. Senate, was a delegate at the state constitutional convention of 1846; he played a prominent role on the convention's judiciary committee in establishing the Court of Appeals. Harris, together with Parker, a former Congressman, was a delegate at the state constitutional convention of 1867. The two were leaders in the debates and in the ultimate decisions to fix the size of the court at seven, its members to be chosen statewide instead of regionally, and the term of office to be fourteen years--decisions which endure today. And, if that weren't enough, both Harris and Parker sat on the Court as "ex-officio members," designated from their positions as state Supreme Court Justices: Parker in 1854, Harris in 1858.

The new law school, founded by Parker, Harris, and Amos Dean in 1851, did not take long in producing its first future Court of Appeals Judge. Irving G. Vann, an 1865 graduate, was appointed to the Court in 1895, elected to a full term the following year, and served until mandatory age retirement in 1912. His career on the high court also included a seven year stint, from 1885 to 1892, on the "Court of Appeals, Second Division"--a constitutionally authorized second tribunal to help deal with a staggering high court case...