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Author:

Patrick M. Connors is a Professor of Law at Albany Law School where he teaches New York Practice, Legal Ethics, and a seminar in Professional Responsibility. He was an Adjunct Professor of Law at Syracuse University College of Law where he taught Professional Responsibility from 1991 to 1999.

He received his B.A. degree from Georgetown University and his J.D. degree from St. John’s Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review and research assistant to Professor David D. Siegel.

Upon graduation from St. John’s in 1988, Professor Connors served as a personal law clerk to Judge Richard D. Simons of the New York Court of Appeals until 1991. From 1991 until May of 2000 he was an associate and then member of the litigation department at Hancock & Estabrook, LLP, in Syracuse, New York.

Professor Connors is the author of the McKinney’s Practice Commentaries for CPLR Article 31, Disclosure, Article 22, Stay, Motions, Orders and Mandates, Article 23, Subpoenas, Oaths and Affirmations, and Article 30, Remedies and Pleading. He is also the author of the Practice Commentaries for several Canons in the New York Lawyers’ Code of Professional Responsibility, and several articles in the Surrogate’s Court Procedure Act. He is also the author of the New York Practice column published in the New York Law Journal. From 1992 through 2003, he was a Reporter for the Committee on New York Pattern Jury Instructions (“PJI”), the panel of New York State Supreme Court Justices that drafts and oversees the frequent revisions of the standard jury charges in civil cases.

He is a member of the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Professional Ethics. He served on the New York State Attorney Grievance Committee for the Fifth Judicial District from 1997 until 2000. He is the Reporter for the New York State Bar Association's Special Committee on the Code of Judicial Conduct. He is a member of the Office of Court Administration’s Advisory Committee on Civil Practice and served as a member of the New York State Bar Association’s CPLR Committee from 2003 through 2007.

Professor Connors is a frequent lecturer at continuing legal education seminars on recent developments in New York Practice, professional ethics and legal malpractice.