Edward C. Hooks
Member

Mr. Hooks is managing partner of the Ithaca office.  He practices in the firm’s Corporate, Business and Commercial Litigation and Labor and Employment Law Practice Groups.  He also serves on the Automotive and Vehicles, Educational Institutions, Financial Institutions and Capital Markets, and Municipalities and Quasi-Governmental Agencies Industry Teams.  Mr. Hooks focuses his practice on civil litigation, general business, banking, and labor and employment matters.  He serves as general counsel for Tompkins Financial Corporation, and has represented Tompkins Cortland Community College for nearly 25 years. Mr. Hooks has served as town attorney for the Town of Newfield since 1993.  He has considerable trial and appellate experience in both state and federal courts and also has represented employers and contractors in American Arbitration Association and Public Employment Relations Board proceedings, as well as before the State Division of Human Rights.

Representative cases include: 

• Detsel v. Board of Education of the Auburn Enlarged City School District (U.S. District Court, NDNY, 2d Circuit Court of Appeals): Obtained dismissal of EAHCA (now, IDEA) case involving question of what medical services are included within a school district's obligation to provide a "free appropriate public education."
• Maybee v. Town of Newfield (U.S. District Court, NDNY): obtained summary judgment dismissing constitutional challenge to town's land use regulation.
• Matter of Tompkins Cortland Community College and CSEA (28 PERB 4532): Improper practice charges sustained against union which failed to affirmatively support tentative collective bargaining agreement; contract imposed as remedy.
• Cayuga Press of Ithaca Inc. v. Lithographics, Inc. (Appellate Division, Third Department): Obtained substantial money judgment for defendant on its counterclaim in breach of warranty case.
• Valentino v. County of Tompkins (Appellate Division, Third Department): Successfully represented Tompkins County in challenge involving its election redistricting plan.
• Collins v. Welch (Supreme Court, Tompkins County): Obtained order which precluded expert testimony concerning a diagnosis not generally accepted by scientific community; one of the first cases discussing application of Daubert principle to claims in New York State courts.
• Shultz v. Iwachiw (Appellate Division, Fourth Department): Obtained summary judgment dismissing Labor Law §§240, 241 claims against a construction consultant using a unique "build your own home" concept.
• Sanzo v. Solvay Union Free School District (Appellate Division, Fourth Department): Obtained judgment dismissing student's personal injury claim involving altercation at school.
• Coffey v. Tetragenetics, Inc. (Appellate Division, Third Department): Court affirmed summary judgment dismissal of claim by company president that she was improperly discharged.