Leonard Hackney

Leonard J. Hackney (March 29, 1855 – October 3, 1938) was an American lawyer, politician, and judge who served as a justice of the Indiana Supreme Court from January 2, 1893 to January 2, 1899. Biography Early life and education Born in Edinburgh, Indiana, Hackney's only formal education was at the local schoolhouse, where he attended for five terms. Legal career, judicial service, and later life At age sixteen, Hackney became a law clerk at the firm of Hord & Blair in Shelbyville. He was briefly employed at a law office in Kokomo in 1873 and then another office in Indianapolis, run by Kendall M. Hord, who Hackney knew from his clerk job back in Shelbyville. In 1876, Hackney was admitted to the Indiana bar and returned to Shelbyville to open his own private law practice. He represented several large railroad companies and was perceived by the public to be in the pocket of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway company, known as the "Big Four Railroad."