By MATT CHANDLER
Buffalo Law Journal

Retired federal judge Hon. John Elfvin died Tuesday in a Lancaster nursing home. He was 91.

Elfvin, whose career on the bench spanned 33 years, was born in Montour Falls, Schuyler County, on June 30, 1917. He was a 1942 graduate of Cornell University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. Following a stint in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he graduated from Georgetown Law School in 1947.

His distinguished career included many years in Buffalo working in private practice and as an assistant U.S. Attorney from 1955-58. Elfvin was active in the community, serving as a member of the Board of Supervisors of Erie County as well as on the Buffalo Common Council.

Elfvin was named U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York in 1972, and two years later was selected by President Gerald Ford to serve as a federal judge in the U.S. District Court based in Buffalo, a post he held for nearly 33 years. Health issues forced him to retire on Oct. 5, 2007.

Jeremy Colby, a partner with Webster Szanyi who served as Elfvin's law clerk from 2002-05, remembers the judge as a man devoted to the Western District.

"He worked until he could no longer do so physically in order to help out the WDNY judges struggling under a heavy case load," Colby said in an e-mail message. "He had a great sense of humor about himself and the world ... his smile was contagious."

Federal law allows for judges who have reached senior status to retire at full pay, but Elfvin remained on the bench for two decades as a senior federal judge.

"He stayed on, basically, as a volunteer for 20 years," Colby said. "It speaks to his character. He was selfless and saw it as his duty to help out the other judges who each carried a huge case load."

Though his tenure on the bench was not without controversy, including being reprimanded twice by the U.S. District Court of Appeals for failing to adhere to sentencing guidelines, many of those who represented clients before him remember Elfvin as a fair and balanced jurist with a strong knowledge of the law.

"He was a very analytical, incredibly smart guy," said Bob Lane, a partner with Hodgson Russ who handled many cases before Elfvin. "He was a very independent thinker, and it seemed to me that even when he had a decision overturned, he had always done what he thought was right."

While Elfvin had a reputation for being slow to return decisions, Lane said there was an up side to that.

"He wrote incredibly detailed opinions," he explained. "And when you did get them back, they were always well-crafted and -researched, and always well-reasoned."

Elfvin is survived by his wife of 48 years, the former Peggy Pierce.

Funeral arrangements were not known at press time.