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Profile of Jane Hoffman, Esq.,
President of the not-for-profit
Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals
By Constance Young ©2006.

Jane Hoffman started out as a law librarian,
then experienced large law firm life, left to
go into solo practice, and finally realized her
dream of starting her own not-for-profit.
Read her inspiring story.

After spending several years exploring her
career options, as a librarian, paralegal, even
studying in England to be an archaeologist,
Jane Hoffman settled on a law career -- with
the help of a lot of friends. Jane claims that
her delayed career start added to her ability to
be a good lawyer, helping her "bring more
worldly experience to practicing law."

You might call Jane a "Renaissance woman"
because of her mastery of several disciplines
that propelled her career at every step along
the way. Jane's present position as President
of the Mayor's Alliance for New York City's

Animals is a testament to her eclecticism, not to mention good contacts and
mentors. The Mayor's Alliance is a 501(c)(3) corporation working in a public-
private partnership with the City of New York to create a "no-kill city" by the year
2015. While today roughly 23,000 cats and dogs are euthanized every year at
New York City Animal Care and Control shelters, which is under contract with
the city's Health Department, by 2015 the hope is that no New York City dog or
cat of reasonable health and temperament will be killed simply because he or
she does not have a home.

Career wanderings. Jane's career wanderings took her from an early interest
in political science and history where she received her BA degree in 1975 -- to
study abroad; then to paralegal courses that fueled her lifelong interest in legal
research. Jane subsequently went to library school where she focused on
legal research.

Jane accepted a job as a legal librarian at Dewey Ballantine in its NYC office.
Jane stayed at that job for about six years where she helped create a tax library
while attending Brooklyn Law School at night. She had come to realize that she
could be "as good as the young lawyers she was helping." She got her law
degree in 1984 at about age 30 and was admitted to practice in 1985.

After graduation, Jane called her friend and mentor Denise Blau, a former
Dewey tax lawyer, who had since left Dewey to become a Partner at Hale
Russell & Gray in NYC (now Hale Russell Gray Seaman & Birkett). Denise told
her, "I've been waiting for you to graduate. When can you start?" Jane stayed
at Hale for about two years.

A "basketball scholarship?" In the meantime, Joyce Murty, a former Dewey
paralegal who had also left to go to law school and was now practicing at
Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, called Jane and invited her to join them playing
on the NYC Lawyer's Basketball League, which includes more than 200 teams
from all of the major New York City law firms. Through her basketball
companions, Jane learned about an opening in Simpson’s tax department
and she applied and got the job. She likes to joke that she "got it on a
basketball scholarship."
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