More than 100 honor court divorce mediator at retirement party

During the 11 years Dutchess County Court Attorney-Referee Jack Schachner presided over divorce cases at the County Courthouse, the avid Yankees and Knicks fan would often amaze attorneys and litigants with his knowledge of sports statistics
On Dec. 20, members of the Dutchess County Bar Association threw a retirement party for Schachner, thanking him for accumulating some impressive statistics of his own.

Between 1999 and November of this year, retired Court of Appeals Judge Albert Rosenblatt told the more than 100 assembled attorneys and Schachner's friends and family members, he was assigned a total of 1,032 divorce cases the couples' lawyers had been unable to resolve.

Schachner settled 1,021 of them, compiling a "batting average" of .989, Rosenblatt noted at the luncheon at the Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel.

Rosenblatt and others in the association praised Schachner for the combination of patience and skill that enabled him to rack up those statistics.

Rosenblatt said the couples who arrived at Schachner's office on the second floor of the courthouse "do not know Jack or what to expect. They are frightened, mistrustful.

"Then the parties watch him proceed with the skill and delicacy of a surgeon and the sensitivity of a cleric," he said.

Rosenblatt joked that no one in the room would want to meet the 11 couples whose cases could not be resolved under Schachner's supervision.

"But as to the other 98.9 percent, they would, I am sure, avow that no one on Earth could have treated them with more fairness, decency and neutrality than Jack gave them."

Poughkeepsie attorney Len Klein, who brought many of his divorce cases to Schachner, noted "Matrimonials are the most difficult of all cases to solve, and Jack was given the most difficult matrimonials."

Klein said Schachner was able to resolve these cases "because he gathered all the elements he needed to cross the finish line. Once he started, he was immersed in the case."

Hopewell Junction attorney Kathryn Lazar said that while Schachner's statistics "are impressive , they don't tell the story of Jack."

   source http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com

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