"Corbally, Gartland and Rappleyea, LLP was founded in 1876 by the distinguished Poughkeepsie attorneys John Hackett and James L. Williams. Henry T. Hackett joined the firm in 1912 and later served as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's personal attorney and executor of his Last Will and Testament. Firm member and state assemblyman John Mulford Hackett, meanwhile, co-introduced state legislation in 1923 that first advocated the building of the Mid-Hudson Bridge. Charlotte Cunneen-Hackett was a pioneering woman attorney at the firm in the early 20th century who later established the influential Charlotte Cunneen-Hackett Charitable Trust.

By 1950 the firm had evolved into the entity known as Corbally and Gartland. Firm member Charles L. McCann helped his brother James establish the James J. McCann Trust, which was subsequently directed by John J. Gartland. Mr. Gartland oversaw many important community endeavors, including the reconstruction of the historic Bardavon Building and the development of Marist College, the Mid-Hudson Civic Center and McCann Ice Arena, Saint Francis Hospital and Our Lady of Lourdes High School."