Rosemary W. McKenna

Rose has worked with commercial, charitable, and professional entities for more than 30 years, providing them with seasoned, practical, and innovative legal advice.

Rose has always focused on charitable, business, and professional entities, working with virtually all types of private entities, including small start-up entities, family-owned businesses, local, regional and national public charities, private foundations, and local, regional, national and international businesses, in all areas of their operations.  Her clients value her ability to understand the practical implications of transactions and operational matters, stay true to their objectives, and to develop and implement legal transactions in an innovative manner.

Rose has the experience and skills to offer clients comprehensive transactional and commercial legal services. She has worked with clients in all areas of their operations, including formation and organization, securing tax-exempt status for not-for-profit organizations, the development of policies and practices, continuing governance issues and organizational re-structures, statutory compliance matters, mergers, acquisitions, and other affiliations, commercial real estate and financing transactions, personnel policies, training and employment matters, licensing, trademark and copyright, and contracting.

Prior to joining Hacker Murphy, LLP, Rose was affiliated with a national law firm, providing comprehensive transactional and commercial legal services to business and charitable organizations. Rose has also served as general counsel for a group of affiliated charitable organizations in the educational, medical and housing fields, and has practiced with several other prestigious area law firms.

Bar Admissions

• State of New York
• United States District Court, Northern District of New York
• United States Tax Court
• State of Connecticut (inactive)

Education

• Juris Doctor, cum laude, Albany Law School of Union University
• Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, University at Albany

Experience

• Representation of hundreds of small businesses in dozens of industries in a wide array of legal matters such as formation, governance, acquisitions and sales of businesses, investments in other organizations, development of policies and procedures, lease and other contractual matters, personnel matters, and intellectual property protection matters.
• Represented affiliated groups of charitable organizations in implementing comprehensive medical research programs, including the negotiation of agreements for medical research with nationally recognized academic and medical facilities and the formation, accreditation, and organization of an independent medical research organization, and the financing and construction of a dedicated medical research building.
• Served in an outside general counsel capacity for several physicians and other professional practices, providing a full complement of legal services to address all areas of operations and transactional matters, including formation, governance, contracting, credentialing, and regulatory compliance matters.
• Represented a large multi-specialty physician practice and other provider groups in acquisition and unwinding transactions with for-profit practice management companies, including the acquisition of the assets of the practice and a long-term, management agreement.
• Represented national physician management companies in implementing national practice asset acquisition and long-term management transactions.
• Represented purchasers and sellers in asset and stock transfers and related financing transactions.
• Served as part of a team that provided general counsel services to several major professional and statewide trade associations, providing advice on an array of corporate, transactional, regulatory, and compliance matters.

Awards & Recognition

AV^® Preeminent^TM Peer Review Rating*

• The Best Lawyers in America^®, 2025
  • Real Estate Law

Professional Affiliations

• New York State Bar Association
• Albany County Bar Association
• Schenectady County Bar Association
• Capital Region Chamber of Commerce, Women’s Business Council (Past Member)

Speaking Engagements, Publications, & Conferences

• Journal of Urgent Care Medicine, “Why Are You Being Sued?,” 2018
• Capital District Business Review, “HMOs Exposed To Increased Liability for Treatment Decisions,” 1998
• Bender’s Health Law Monthly, “The ‘What’s,’ ‘How’s’ and ‘Whys’ of Diagnostic and Treatment Centers,” 1995
• Contributing Author for various newsletters and blog posts on corporate, employment, governance, regulatory and cyber security topics
• Guest Lecturer, Siena College, Introduction to Business and Entrepreneurship, Prof. Kara Conway Love, March, 2018
• Speaker, How to Navigate the Waters of MWBE, Albany Business Review, October, 2017
• Speaker, HHS OIG and OMIG Auditing Priorities: The Home Care Impact, Home Care Association of New York State Corporate Compliance Symposium, October, 2017
• Speaker, Why Are You Being Sued?, Northeast Regional Urgent Care Association, October, 2016
• Speaker, Mohawk Valley Association of Independent Credit Unions, Into the Breach: Cybersecurity Incident Response Preparedness: Developing and Testing an Incident Response Plan, June, 2016
• Speaker, Albany Business Review, Into the Breach: Cybersecurity Incident Response Preparedness: Developing and Testing an Incident Response Plan, May, 2016
• Speaker, New York State Society for Human Resource Management, Avoiding the Penalty Box: Record Management, Retention and Destruction, September, 2013
• Speaker, National Business Institute, Business Contracts A-Z (Competition Issues), February, 2013
• Speaker, Capital District Paralegals Association, Ethics for Paralegals, February, 2006, and October, 2010
• Adjunct Professor, State University of New York at Albany, Business School, Albany, New York, Legal Challenges in Health Care, Spring, 1998
• Adjunct Professor, College of St. Rose, Albany, New York, Business Law and the Regulatory Environment, (Certified Employee Benefit Specialist Program), Fall, 1996
• Speaker, Capital District Paralegals Association, Ethics for Paralegals, February, 2006 and October, 2010
• Speaker/Co-Presenter, New York State Bar Association, A Primer on Health Law, Tax Exempt Issues, Fall, 2000
• Speaker, Professional Education Seminars, Inc., LLCs & LLPs: an Intensive Introduction to Law, Tax & Formation, Albany and Melville, New York, July, 1999
• Speaker, New York Health Care Management Group, Presentation on legal issues relating to independent practice associations and management services organizations, November, 1996

Practice Areas

• Commercial Law and Transactions
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Not-for-Profit Organizations
• Employment
• Contract Law