Albany Law School Graduate Confirmed by U.S. Senate for Agriculture

WEBWIRE – Wednesday, January 21, 2009

New York - The U.S. Senate confirmed Albany Law School (www.albanylaw.edu) graduate and former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack as U.S. agriculture secretary on Tuesday.

The two-term governor, who spent a day with students on Albany Law School’s campus in upstate New York last year, announced his bid as presidential candidate November 2006 but dropped out months later after struggling to raise the money needed to run an aggressive national campaign.

The Albany Law rugby player received the Law School’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007 and is remembered by his study-group classmates as a steady, calm student who handled the stress of school easily.

The Pittsburgh native who attended Hamilton College was Albany Law
School’s second graduate to run for president. U.S. Pres. William
McKinley was the New York school’s first.

About Albany Law School

ALBANY LAW SCHOOL (www.albanylaw.edu) is a small, independent private school in the heart of New York State’s capital since 1851. As the oldest law school in New York and the oldest independent law school in the nation, the institution offers students an innovative, rigorous curriculum taught by a committed faculty. Several nationally recognized programs-including the Government Law Center and the Albany Law Clinic & Justice Center-provide opportunities for students to apply classroom learning. Students have access to New York’s highest court, federal courts and the state legislature, as well as a thriving tech-based economy. With 9,000-plus alumni practicing in every state in the country, and several continents, the employment rate for graduates has been well above the national average for law schools for the past 26 years.