Howley '80 named chair-elect of board of trustees

John J.P. Howley '80, vice chair of the Skidmore College Board of Trustees, has been named chair-elect. He will succeed Suzanne Corbet Thomas '62, who will step down in May after six years. Howley was elected vice chair of the Board in 2002.

A partner in the New York office of the law firm of Kaye Scholer LLP, Howley chaired the the 16-member search committee that brought Philip A. Glotzbach to the Skidmore presidency in 2003.

Skidmore's Board of Trustees "will be well served by his capable leadership, which is characterized by both passion and thoughtfulness," said Thomas.

"In all of his work on the board, John has combined a lively intelligence with a deep commitment to Skidmore," she noted. "He did an outstanding job as chair of the presidential search committee, listening carefully to the college's many constituencies. He has been especially attentive to issues of diversity and the need to foster greater intercultural and global understanding among all of our students."

Although Howley's main professional expertise is in antitrust and intellectual property, he has had remarkable success with pro bono death-penalty appeals, including the case of a severely schizophrenic Virginia resident who was convicted of murder and scheduled to die in 1999. Greatly assisted in that case by ten students taking Skidmore Government professor Beau Breslin's "Law and Society" class, Howley was awarded the College's Distinguished Achievement Award in 2000 and named a trustee the same year.

While at Skidmore as an undergraduate, Howley was elected sophomore class president and, as a junior, president of the Student Government Association. As a senior, Howley became executive director of the Independent Student Coalition, a student lobbying organization that advocated for increased financial aid to students at independent colleges.

Upon graduation, Howley was hired by the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities to represent private colleges and universities in New York State on student aid issues before the State legislature and Congress. At the Commission, Howley worked with Skidmore President Joseph Palamountain, who served on the organization's board.

Howley has argued before the Supreme Court and has received a number of advocacy awards including the American College of Trial Lawyers' Medal for Excellence in Advocacy, the Thurgood Marshall Award presented by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and the Gideon Award presented by the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Howley earned his J.D. degree magna cum laude from New York Law School in 1989. Howley, his wife Isabelita, and their two sons, reside in Colonia, N.J.