Tully Rinckey PLLC

Focus and practice areas

From a main office in Latham, New York, the firm works across a wide range of legal fields. It handles employment law and federal employment law, together with military law and security clearance representation. That grouping points to a client base that includes federal employees and members of the armed forces. Employment work of this kind often turns on workplace rights, discipline, and the rules that govern federal service.

The roster of practice areas runs well beyond that core. The firm covers family and matrimonial law, criminal law, immigration, business law, tax law, trusts and estates, personal injury, and medical malpractice. It also takes on whistleblower cases, special education matters, and appellate work. In my opinion, that breadth suits a firm that represents both private individuals and companies under one roof, since a single client may need help on more than one front over time.

How the firm is built

Mathew B. Tully and Greg T. Rinckey founded the firm in 2004. Both came to private practice after military service, and that history shows in the fields the firm chooses to name. Tully earned his Juris Doctor from Brooklyn Law School in 2002. Before law, he served three years in the U.S. Army as a field artillery officer.

Tully's own work covers business, employment and labor, and military and veterans law. He has litigated before the New York State Court of Appeals, which is the highest court in the state. That kind of appellate experience matters, because arguments there shape how a rule applies to later cases.

From uniform to practice

Rinckey holds the managing partner role and works from the Latham office. He earned a J.D. from Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, an MBA from the State University of New York at Albany, and a B.B.A. from Hofstra University. He served as an attorney with the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, where he prosecuted and defended military personnel in felony cases. As a reviewer, I read these two backgrounds as the reason military and federal employment sit high on the firm's menu.

Military and federal service leaves a mark on how a lawyer reads these cases. An officer who has worked inside the chain of command knows how a separation board weighs evidence, and a former JAG attorney has stood on both sides of a court-martial. That firsthand view is hard to gain from the outside, and it lines up with the firm's stated focus on service members and federal employees.

Where the firm operates

The firm describes itself as national, with its headquarters in the Albany, New York area. Its offices reach across three states and the nation's capital. In New York, the firm keeps locations in Albany, Buffalo, Manhattan, Rochester, Saratoga Springs, Syracuse, and White Plains. That spread covers the state's major population centers, the capital region and New York City among them.

Beyond New York, the firm has offices in Austin and Houston in Texas, Ladera Ranch in California, and Washington, D.C. The Washington office lines up with the federal employment and security clearance work, since much of that practice runs through agencies and review boards based in the capital. A footprint of this size lets one firm keep a case with the same team even when a client moves or a matter crosses state lines.

How these matters generally proceed

Several of the firm's fields follow set procedures. Federal employment disputes often move through agency channels such as the Merit Systems Protection Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or the Office of Special Counsel before they reach a court. Security clearance matters usually run before agency adjudicators and hearing panels, and those panels weigh clearance cases by a different standard from a criminal court.

Military law carries its own forums. Courts-martial, administrative separation boards, and discharge upgrade petitions each follow military procedure and go before military decision-makers or correction boards. In my opinion, a firm that names military and federal work this openly is signaling comfort with forums that fall outside the daily routine of many general practices.

The private-client side

The private-client fields follow more familiar paths. Family and matrimonial cases cover divorce, custody, and support, and in New York they include the division of marital property. Immigration work covers family petitions, employment-based visas, naturalization, and defense in immigration court. Criminal matters move through arraignment, pretrial motions, and either a plea or a trial. Appellate law picks up where a trial court leaves off and tests the record before a higher bench.

On the business side, the firm's work touches entity formation, contracts, and commercial disputes, while trusts and estates covers wills, estate planning, and the administration of an estate after death. Personal injury and medical malpractice claims rest on proof of negligence and its link to a client's harm. Each of these areas keeps its own timeline, and each rewards a lawyer who knows the local court and its habits.

Other listed fields carry their own procedures. Tax matters can involve filings, audits, and disputes with revenue authorities at the state or federal level. Whistleblower cases often proceed under statutes that protect an employee who reports wrongdoing, and the timing of a complaint can shape the outcome. Special education work turns on the rights of a student under federal law, and it can bring a family before a hearing officer to settle a plan for services.

Who the firm represents

The firm lists a client base that spans individuals, families, and companies of all sizes, such as startups and global corporations. It also names governments and nonprofits among its clients. A client list that broad matches the range of practice areas the firm keeps, because the same office can serve a single worker and a corporate department in turn.

A firm that keeps this many fields under one name can cover needs that a client might otherwise split among several offices. A person with a security clearance problem and a family matter can bring both to the same team. The office network gives each client a nearby place to begin, and the shared name means one set of records follows the work.

The firm maintains profiles on Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Its public attorney directory runs through a search filter, and the two founders are the names the site sets out in full. Both built the firm in 2004, and both bring military service to the firm they lead.