James F. Tracey was a partner of the firm from 1882 to 1925.
Tracey, born in 1854, was the firm’s first partner of Irish descent, mirroring the large growth in Albany of this immigrant population since the mid -nineteenth century. Tracey graduated from Georgetown University, and Albany Law School, and was admitted to the bar in 1875. Like James Fenimore Cooper, Tracey trained with noted Albany lawyer Marcus T. Hun.
In 1882, he partnered with James Fenimore Cooper and his father Paul Fenimore Cooper (senior counsel) and the firm became known as Tracey & Cooper. As new partners were added, the firm successively became known as Tracey, Cooper & Rathbone; Tracey, Cooper and Townsend and Tracey, Cooper & Savage.
Tracey was an expert in corporate law. He served as the examiner of corporations for the New York Secretary of State, and taught corporate law for many years at his alma mater, Albany Law School.
In 1902, President Roosevelt named Tracey as a justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. He served there until 1905, when he resumed his law practice with the firm.
He was actively involved in Democratic politics.
Judge Tracey died in 1925 at the age of 71.
