History
Harrington & Mahoney came into existence in 1995 when two lawyers, each well known throughout New York as criminal defense lawyers, inevitably joined forces.
Jim Harrington, a graduate of the University at Buffalo Law School and LeMoyne College, had already been in private practice for 26 years. He began in 1969 as an attorney with Neighborhood Legal Services, providing legal services for the poor in civil matters. He then entered private practice, concentrating on criminal law, also serving as confidential law clerk to Judge J. Douglas Trost, Erie County Family Court Judge, from 1978-1980.
One of Jim Harrington's initial high profile cases was in the defense of Owen Carron, a member of the British Parliament, and a leader of Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland. Carron was arrested while attempting to enter the United States from Canada. Arrested with Carron was Danny Morrison, another leader in Sinn Fein. Morrison, it turns out, was represented by Mark Mahoney. That was in 1982.
Mark Mahoney was graduated from Notre Dame University, in 1971, and the University at Buffalo Law School. He had been a criminal defense lawyer since 1974, beginning as a clerk, then associate and then partner with the firm of Doyle, Diebold & Bermingham. Vincent E. Doyle, Jr. and Joseph D. Bermingham were two of the most prominent criminal defense lawyers in Buffalo, and both were leaders in the state and local bar associations. The firm continued, first as Diebold, Bermingham, Gorman, Brown & Bridge, after Mr. Doyle was elected to the New York Supreme Court in 1988, where he continued as a Justice until his untimely death in 2006. Bermingham, Cook & Mahoney was formed in 1989, but Mr. Mahoney left that firm and did what he had hoped to do for some time, form a partnership with Jim Harrington. Together they took over the offices of Mark's former law firm in Buffalo's historic Statler Towers.
Our associate, Ian Harrington, is a 2009 graduate of University at Buffalo Law School. He began clerking for the firm as as student and became an associate upon graduation.
