Partner, Phillips Lytle LLP

Craig R. Bucki is a litigation partner at Phillips Lytle LLP in Buffalo, elected partner in 2015, who co-chairs the firm's appellate practice and has argued before the New York Court of Appeals and handled more than 25 appeals in all four Appellate Division departments⁷⁸. He earned a B.A. magna cum laude from Yale in 2003 and a J.D. from Columbia Law School in 2006, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar⁷⁸. He runs on the Democratic and Working Families lines; Four 14-year Supreme Court seats in the Eighth Judicial District (Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Niagara, Orleans and Wyoming counties) are on the ballot and voters may choose up to four of seven candidates; two candidates, Michael L. Amodeo and Robert N. Richardson, are cross-endorsed by both major parties, while Bucki and Joynt run on the Democratic side, Tripi and Hickey on the Republican side, and Vario on the Conservative line only¹²⁹.

• Partner, Phillips Lytle LLP, Buffalo (elected partner 2015; associate 2006 to 2014); co-chair of the appellate practice; commercial, municipal, matrimonial, foreclosure, personal injury, constitutional and land use litigation in 26 New York counties⁷⁸⁹
• Chair of the Bar Association of Erie County Professional Ethics Committee; member of the New York State Bar Association House of Delegates; American Law Institute member⁸
• Board director, Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo, 2017 to present⁹
• B.A., Yale University, magna cum laude, 2003; J.D., Columbia Law School, 2006⁷⁸
• Nominated at the September 2026 Democratic judicial nominating convention for the Eighth Judicial District and also holds the Working Families line; New York Supreme Court justices are chosen through party conventions and elected to 14-year terms¹⁶⁹.
• Bar poll: Bar Association of Erie County Judiciary Committee ratings for the 2026 New York State Supreme Court candidates, released September 16, 2026. The committee is a 29-lawyer nonpartisan panel with no more than 14 members from any one party that reviews questionnaires, interviews and input from lawyers and judges; it uses a four-level scale of Outstanding, Well Qualified, Qualified and Not Recommended. The rating is a non-binding evaluation of qualifications and is not an endorsement. Rating: Craig R. Bucki, Well Qualified. Ratings in this race: Amodeo Qualified; Bucki Well Qualified; Hickey Well Qualified; Joynt Well Qualified; Richardson Well Qualified; Tripi Well Qualified; Vario not included in the release; the release also rates three other people (Christopher M. Pannozzo, Kenneth A. Szyszkowski and Peter P. Vasilion) who are not on the November ballot for this race³. No 2026 rating from the Eighth Judicial District Independent Judicial Election Qualification Commission was found; the commissions' ratings site lists no Eighth District ratings after 2018⁵.