Timeline Stories

Edward S. Rooney, a partner the firm from 1929 until his death in 1970, was born in Albany in 1906. He graduated from Manhattan College and received his legal education at Harvard Law School. He joined the firm in 1929 and was senior partner from 1952 to 1970. Rooney was a brilliant lawyer excelling in banking law. He was counsel for the State Banking Association and played a major role in a famous test case in the Court of Appeals which established that savings banks could legally stop interest payments on accounts inactive for over 20 years. Vennard v. Albany Savings Bank, 282 N.Y. 718 (1940) Click here for decision. In 1944, at age 38, Rooney became the youngest president of the First Trust Company Bank. He held that position for 24 years until the bank merged with Bankers Trust New York, at the time the nation’s second largest bank. He then became a director of Bankers Trust. Rooney was also a trustee of Albany Savings Bank and director of The United Traction Company, both large firm clients. Rooney was gregarious and generous and a prodigious business producer. In his little time off, he enjoyed being with his family at Lochlea Estate his Lake George summer home. Rooney died in 1970 at age 64.

B. Jermain “Jerry” Savage (Partner  1918 to 1952) was born in 1882 in Newburgh, New York. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Williams College. He received his law degree (with honors) from New York Law School. In 1910, he entered the firm then known as Tracey, Cooper & Townsend. In 1914, he left to serve in World War I, and, when he returned, became a firm partner. When Townsend left to become president of Albany Savings Bank, the firm became known as Tracey, Cooper & Savage. When James Tracey died in 1925, and William Van Rensselaer Erving joined the firm, it became known as Cooper Erving & Savage by which is known to the present day. Savage specialized in corporate law, estate and tax law and was an authority on banking law. In 1941, he was named as chairman of the board of First Trust Company and remained so until his death. He was also a senior vice president of Albany Savings Bank. Both banks were firm clients. He served on many other corporate and civic boards, including the William P. Van Rensselaer Estate Corporation. He frequently lectured on the history of the Van Rensselaer family. He was early investor in television and an owner Champlain Television Corporation. Savage died in 1952 at age 69.

Albert Rathbone was a partner of the firm from 1893 to 1899. Rathbone, born in Albany in 1868, graduated from Williams College and Albany Law School. He joined the firm in 1893 which then became known as Tracey, Cooper & Rathbone. Like Tracey, Rathbone was an expert in corporate law and finance. In 1899 he left the firm to relocate to New York City. In 1901 he became a partner in Joline, Larkin & Rathbone, and in the booming decade before World War I, helped organize and reorganize many major US corporations, including several railroads. After the war he was named by Woodrow Wilson as the Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury. In 1920, he returned to his law practice at his old firm, which shortly thereafter became Rathbone, Perry Kelley and Drye with Rathbone as the senior partner. Under his leadership the firm became one of the most prestigious in the country. Rathbone died in 1943 at the age of 75. He is buried in the family plot in Albany Rural Cemetery.

James J. Drislane was a highly experienced business lawyer with an extensive practice when he joined the firm as a partner in 1981. He was an ally and political advisor to partner Thomas Whalen, who orchestrated the merger. Drislane’s expertise was in construction law, complex real property law and trusts and estates. He was a well-respected business leader in the community. Drislane died suddenly in 1988 at age 72.  

Paul Fenimore Cooper, Partner (1850-1895) Son of the famous author, James Fenimore Cooper. He was raised in France for his first 10 years. Studied law at Harvard Law. He joined the firm in 1850 with Duncan McMartin and Charles M. Jenkins as partners. McMartin left in 1854. He had a home in Cooperstown , but  when in Albany lived with his family in the historical Albany Academy building. With Jenkins, he represented the  Stephen Van Rensselaer estate among other prominent clients. He was quiet an and unassuming and had great pride in his family heritage. He served on several prestigious boards, including the Albany Institute and Albany Academy.

Duncan McMartin (Partner 1846-1852) was born in Fulton County New York and married Margaret Cady, Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s sister. He was initially trained by Judge Cady and then attended Harvard Law. He practiced in Albany with Teunis Van Vechten and Judge Cady. At the time of the Civil War McMartin joined the Union army as colonel leading the 153 NY Regiment. After the war, his life took a path away from the practice of law. He moved to Iowa and became one of the largest and most successful landowners in that State.  

James Fenimore Cooper was the son of Paul Fenimore Cooper, a partner in the firm, and grandson of the famous author James Fenimore Cooper. He was a partner of the firm from 1882 to 1938. Cooper trained in the law with the noted Albany lawyer Marcus T. Hun, and was admitted to the bar in 1882. He then joined his father in the firm Jenkins & Cooper. After his father’s death in 1895, the firm became known successively as Tracey, Cooper & Rathbone; Tracey, Cooper and Townsend; Tracey, Cooper & Savage, and, in 1925, Cooper Erving & Savage by which it is known today. During Cooper’s tenure the firm became known for its expertise in banking law, for which it remains to the present day. Cooper was a director of several banks. The major clients of the firm were First Trust Company (now Key bank) and Albany Savings Bank (now RBS Citizens Bank). Cooper was a director of First Trust Company, and his mentor Marcus T. Hun, and partner Frederick Townsend II, both served as president of Albany Savings Bank. This began a long line of Cooper Erving partners serving as bank directors and officers. Cooper authored a book about his native Otsego County entitled Legends and Traditions of a Northern County and complied two volumes of correspondence of his namesake grandfather. James Fenimore Cooper died in 1938 having been a member of the firm for 56 years.

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.

Samuel Wilkeson Jr. was a partner from 1843 to 1846. He was trained by his father-in-law, Judge Daniel Cady, another firm partner. Wilkeson’s first love was journalism. He left the firm to pursue his ambition. He purchased the Albany Evening Journal newspaper and, later, wrote famous reports on the Battle of Gettysburg for the New York Times. Wilkeson’s son Lt. Brayard Wilkeson led a famous charge in the battle. Left in a farmhouse after having his leg destroyed by a cannon ball, Bayard amputated his own leg, but died soon thereafter. The Wilkesons are mentioned in Ken Burns’ documentary on the Civil War. Wilkeson wrote the following words at the conclusion of his article concerning the end of the battle: “Oh, you dead who at Gettysburg have baptised with your blood a second birth of Freedom in America, how you are to be envied.” Some that have suggested that these words inspired Lincoln’s words at the end of the Gettysburg address: “. . . that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that his nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” In his later years Wilkeson went west and became heavily involved in the development of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Samuel Wilkeson’s portrait by photographer Mathew Brady is on view at the Smithsonian Art Museum.