Ken Kirschner: Generous Man, Successful Lawyer, Proud ILRie

The ILR School’s 2026 Groat Award winner, Ken Kirschner ’75, has a distinguished career as an employment and labor law practitioner who consistently gives his time, his wisdom and his guidance to those in need. 

“Ken is extremely generous,” says Ken’s older sister, Rhonda Kirschner, CALS ’70. “He is generous of himself and his time, and that generosity is associated with his kindness and thoughtfulness. He is also very wise and works extremely hard, both of which have led to his success as a lawyer.”

One example of his generosity, according to Rhonda, is the pro bono work he undertook early in his career, including a case that lasted more than seven years in which he helped a widow retain her deceased husband’s death benefits from the Railroad Retirement Board.  As a young lawyer, he successfully argued two cases before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to win her benefits.

As a first-year associate, he also took on a case representing a tenant association in Harlem. “The tenant representation enabled me to argue in housing court on the first day I was admitted to practice law in New York,” Kirschner recalls. “We were successful in sustaining a rent strike until all the repairs were made in the building, and I continued to represent the tenants at Edgecombe Avenue for about 15 years.”

While he continues to take pro bono cases on an ad hoc basis, he now focuses on working with many nonprofits, as well as other clients.

As a partner at his current firm – Hogan Lovells – as well as at three previous firms, Kirschner has taken great pride in mentoring the next generation of lawyers. Under his tutelage, 17 former associates have gone on to become partners at their respective firms, while many have moved to senior in-house legal positions and others have gone on to various distinguished careers. 

“I think he puts a lot of time and energy into training and mentoring all the people who work with him,” Rhonda says. “Ken takes great pride and satisfaction in the fact that they succeed.”

The youngest of three children, Kirschner grew up in Spring Valley, New York, about 30 miles north of New York City.  He was introduced to the ILR School through a neighbor, Morris Licker, who also happened to be his teacher. Licker’s daughters attended ILR.

“He recommended the ILR School specifically to me because it was a good pre-law school,” Kirschner said. “And I had also been interested in labor because my grandfather was a member of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers union. So, labor history was always an interest of mine.”

Additionally, thanks to in-state tuition, Kirschner knew he would be able to cover the cost through scholarships, as well as research and teaching assistant positions. 

While Kirschner served as a teaching assistant for Professor Robert Risley, he noted that one of his most meaningful experiences in college came during his junior year, when he was selected for a New York State Assembly internship during the January intersession and was assigned to the Governmental Employees Committee in Albany. 

That internship led to a research assistant position with the Select Committee on Industrial and Labor Problems, and Kirschner spent the following semester commuting from Ithaca to Albany two days a week.

By December of his senior year, Kirschner had enough credits to graduate.  He planned to attend law school in the fall, so he applied his ILR experience to secure a paid position to bridge the gap.

“Thanks to all the experience I had gained at ILR and in local and state legislatures, my newly elected state senator from Rockland County, Linda Winikow, asked me to be her executive assistant in Albany,” Kirschner said. “I was the youngest executive assistant in the New York State Senate in 1975. 

“So, ILR gave me opportunities to do a lot of great things.”

When Kirschner started NYU Law School that fall, he also began a new hobby – boxing.

“It’s one of the few sports that you just do by yourself,” Kirschner said. “You can just go to a boxing gym and find a sparring partner. There weren’t many people in law school who wanted to work out, so I would go to a boxing gym.”

Kirschner approached boxing with his usual hard work, focus and determination, and by 1979, he had the opportunity to participate in the New York Golden Gloves, one of the nation’s premier amateur boxing tournaments. Competing in the junior middleweight division, he fought in Madison Square Garden.

“I went to Madison Square Garden, bought a ticket, I saw him box and he broke his nose,” Rhonda exclaimed. “And then he showed up to work the next day with his nose bandaged and his picture on the back page of The Daily News!”

Thankfully for Kirschner, his nose healed before meeting his wife, Andrea Chase ’79, during collective bargaining negotiations in the late 1980s. Ken was representing the United Jewish Council of the East Side Home Attendant Service Corp., while Andrea was part of the organizing team at Local 32B-32J in New York City.

“As I recall, our union’s lawyer introduced me to Ken as an ILR graduate,” Andrea says. “Yes, the ILR card was played for me. 

“When people hear that Ken and I both went to ILR, they assume we met at school. I like to disabuse them by exclaiming that I was just graduating from high school when he graduated ILR in 1975!”

When the negotiations ended, Ken asked Andrea out for drinks, and the rest is history. 

“We met on opposite sides of the bargaining table, and we have been negotiating ever since,” Andrea says.

The couple has been married for nearly 30 years and has one daughter, Samantha ’22, who, like her parents, graduated from the ILR school. She is a legislative aide for Congressman George Latimer.

“We never pushed her one way or the other, but I think the smartest thing we ever did was to take her to a reunion and let her see Cornell for herself,” Kirschner said. 

A regular at reunions and homecomings over the years, Kirschner has been an active member of the ILR community as a whole, and specifically with the Scheinman Institute, giving his time as a member of the Board of Advisors since 2018.

“I have very much appreciated Ken’s insights and the thoughtfulness of his advice as we seek to ensure that ILR continues its leading role in educating future practitioners in the field,” says Alex Colvin, Ph.D. ’99, ILR’s Kenneth F. Kahn ’69 Dean and Martin F. Scheinman ’75, M.S. ’76, Professor of Conflict Resolution.

Kirschner has also been attending the Groat Awards for over 50 years. 

“I started going to the Groat Awards when Judge Groat was still alive. It was a totally different event back then. There used to be a lunch or dinner, and for half an hour or so, the Groat winner would give something like a dissertation on an issue of labor. It was usually pretty educational.” 

“Most of my brief remarks will be to thank the ILR School, my family, colleagues, law firms, clients, friends and others who have helped me throughout my career.”