Pattison, Sampson, Ginsberg & Griffin, PLLC

What the firm handles

This is a general practice firm based in downtown Troy, New York, and its work reaches across the Capital Region. The areas it names include business and corporate law, civil and commercial litigation, estate planning and elder law, and commercial real estate. The firm also names education law, which covers Title IX, special education and school-related disputes. Labor and employment law and zoning, planning and land use complete the list of areas it names.

The firm works for clients in Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga, and it takes on matters elsewhere in New York State and in Vermont. Its clients include institutions, corporations and individuals. A general civil practice of this kind gives one firm a way to handle several sides of a client's affairs at once. That model lets a returning client bring a new question to lawyers who already know the file.

A practice with two centuries behind it

The firm traces its roots to 1813, when the Pattison name first attached to the practice of law in the Troy area. That line ran across five generations. In my opinion, a documented span of that length is rare for a working law office, and it gives the firm a clear sense of place.

The offices moved more than once inside downtown Troy. They sat on the Market Block at Third and River Streets, shifted to First Street in 1885 at the former Union National Bank site, and settled at the firm's current First Street offices in April 1963. Each move kept the firm within the same few blocks of the city.

Partners in earlier years included Edward H. Pattison and Stephen H. Sampson, who joined in 1937. Another, Edward W. Pattison, served as a member of the United States House of Representatives. That history runs alongside the firm name, which still carries the Pattison and Sampson names today.

The attorneys named on the site

Six lawyers appear across the home and contact pages. They are Michael E. Ginsberg, Thomas E. Lavery, Rhiannon I. Gifford, Lindsay K. Hooper, F. Redmond Griffin and Scott F. Owen. The site names each of them as an attorney without labeling partners or associates.

Two of these surnames, Ginsberg and Griffin, also appear in the firm name, and the Pattison and Sampson names come from the earlier partners. As a reviewer, I read a masthead that still matches the lawyers at work as a fair marker of continuity. The size of the group fits a firm that spreads its work across many civil areas.

How the education work tends to run

Education law covers matters with their own procedures in New York, and the firm names several of them. Special education cases generally run through a school district's Committee on Special Education, which writes an Individualized Education Program for a qualifying student. A parent can bring an advocate or a lawyer to the Committee meeting, and the district keeps a written record of what it decides. When a family and a district disagree, the matter can move to mediation or to an impartial due process hearing. Lawyers in this area prepare records, question witnesses and guide parents through those steps.

Title IX work involves complaints of sex discrimination at schools and colleges that receive federal funding. A case usually opens with an internal investigation, then a hearing that the institution holds. Colleges publish their own Title IX procedures, and a hearing panel weighs the evidence before it reaches a finding. Counsel on either side gathers evidence and advises the people involved as the process moves along. The firm lists both Title IX and special education among its education law areas.

Litigation and employment matters

Civil and commercial litigation covers disputes between businesses, breach of contract claims and other civil actions that reach a New York court. A case of this kind moves through pleadings, discovery, motions and, if it reaches that stage, a trial. Discovery can involve documents, written questions and depositions, and much of a commercial case turns on that record. The firm handles both the commercial side and general civil matters, which lets it act for a company or an individual in the same court system.

Labor and employment law reaches questions between employers and workers, such as workplace policies, discrimination claims and the terms of employment agreements. The parties settle some of these matters, while others go before a state or federal agency. The firm handles labor and employment work alongside its business and education work.

Property, business and estate matters

Commercial real estate and land use work often move together, since a purchase or a development can turn on local rules. Applications for a variance or for site plan approval go before a municipal planning or zoning board, which holds public meetings before it decides. The firm names commercial real estate as well as zoning, planning and land use, so it can take a property matter through both the deal and the approvals.

Estate planning and elder law cover wills, trusts, powers of attorney and health care directives. Elder law also reaches Medicaid planning and the long term care questions that families meet as parents age. Elder law work often involves guardianship petitions and the paperwork that supports a long term care application. In my opinion, pairing estate work with elder law helps a client plan for money and for care in the same sitting. Business and corporate law and civil and commercial litigation are also on the list, and they cover company formation, contracts and the disputes that reach court.