Hon. James H. Dillon ’76

James Dillon smiling wearing suit and tie.

Hon. James H. Dillon ’76 was a justice of the State Supreme Court in the 8th Judicial District of New York, elected to the Supreme Court bench in 2008. He previously served as a judge for Erie County Family Court after being elected to the seat in 1991 and re-elected in 2001.

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Interview Date(s)

February 28, 2013

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About the Hon. James H. Dillon

Dillon graduated from Canisius College before attending the first class of UB law school on the North Campus. There were 320 students in his first-year class. Women were about one-quarter of the class, and minorities slightly less than that.  He remembers Professor Heywood Burns (attorney for the defendants in the Attica prison uprising) as a great teacher for Criminal Procedure. His study group became lifelong friends.

After graduation, Dillon worked as an assistant city attorney of Lackawanna, N.Y., an assistant district attorney for Erie County and a law clerk to Judge Timothy Drury.

He was elected to Erie County Family Court in 1991, and was most proud of running one of the few juvenile drug courts and a model court for best practices and family court judges. He improved the calendar of cases and made cases more personalized for each individual. 

He tried cases in the DA’s office for nine years, then worked with Judge Drury before running for election.

His advice to law students: “It can sometimes be difficult to keep professional distance between you and your clients, especially in family law, and it is a learned skill.” He warns that every disbarment he knows of was on account of money.

In 1996, the Bar Association of Erie County awarded Dillon its Special Service Award “for dedicated service and outstanding contributions to the legal community.”

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