The Bar Association of Erie County and the local affiliate of the Women's Bar Association of the State of New York have each issued ratings for candidates for New York State Supreme Court.

The Western New York chapter of WBASNY rated five candidates as follows: Hon. John O'Donnell, highly qualified; Hon. Shirley Trautman, outstanding; Hon. Christopher Burns, outstanding; Hon. Henry Nowak, highly qualified; and Russell Ippolito Jr., qualified. The candidates were rated in the areas of judicial temperment, reasoning ability, communication skills, legal experience, background for the position, and sensitivity to community and women's issues.

The BAEC rated six candidates based on assessments of their integrity, experience, professional ability, education, reputation and fairness, as follows: Hon. Christopher Burns, outstanding; Russell Ippolito Jr., qualified; Hon. Henry Nowak, qualified; Hon. John O'Donnell, well qualified; Hon. Shirley Trautman, well qualified; and Hon. Jeffrey Voelkl, qualified.

Best Lawyers draws from Buffalo firms

Among those lawyers recognized in the 2010 edition of Best Lawyers in America were 37 from Phillips Lytle LLP.

They are: Edward Bloomberg, in commercial litigation; Gary Kotaska, corporate law; Lisa McDougall, health-care law; Frederick Attea, corporate law; Thomas Bailey, corporate and franchise law; Raymond Barr, employee-benefits law; Peter Braun, commercial and personal-injury litigation; William Brown, bankruptcy and creditor/debtor rights law; James Contino, real estate law; James Donathen, labor and employment Law; Kevin English, commercial litigation; Robert Glanville, environmental law; Morgan Graham, commercial litigation and environmental law; James Grasso, labor and employment law; Robert Greene, health-care law; Edward Griffith Jr., tax law; Tamar Halpern, commercial and product-liability itigation; Kevin Hogan, commercial litigation; Paul Jones, commercial and product liability litigation; David Kernan, employee-benefits law; James Locke, tax law; Kenneth Manning, bet-the-company, commercial, and personal-injury litigation; Michael Moravec, labor and employment law; Paul Morrison-Taylor, personal-injury litigation; David Murray, corporate law; John Pappano, real estate law; Michael Powers, personal-injury litigation; Arthur Russ Jr., corporate law; Raymond Seitz, corporate law, banking law, and equipment-finance law; James Smyton, corporate law; Peter Sommer, intellectual-property law; John Spitzmiller, trusts and estates; Paul Stecker, commercial litigation; James Whitcomb, personal-injury litigation; Sharon Wick, trusts and estates; Thomas Wiswall, commercial and product-liability litigation; and Paul Zuydhoek, bet-the-company and commercial litigation.

Also included on the 2010 Best Lawyers list were solo practitioner Glenn Murray, a member of the board of directors of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; George Collins Jr., chairman of the litigation group at the Bouvier Partnership; and David Alexander, Hugh Carlin, Howard Cohen, Robert Feldman, Peter Gilfillan and Jeffrey Human, of the firm Gross Schuman Brizdle & Gilfillan PC.

25 years of AV ratings for Colucci

Anthony Colucci Jr. was recognized for 25 consecutive years of receiving the highest Martindale Hubbell's list of America's most highly-rated lawyers. The distinction is determined through voting by lawyers.

Colucci is a founding member of Block & Colucci PA in Florida as well as Block & Colucci PC in New York.

Bond labor group launches blog

The labor-and-employment-law practice group at Bond Schoeneck & King PLLC launched a blog described as "the first management-focused online blog dedicated to labor and employment law issues in New York state."

Louis DiLorenzo, chair of the firm's labor, employment, employee benefits and immigration law practice group, said he hopes the blog, at nylaborandemploymentlawreport.com, will be a valuable resource for those seeking current information on labor and employment laws.

Wilder heads Alfred fundraising board

J. Joseph Wilder, a founding partner of Wilder & Linneball LLP, was elected chair of the board of the Alfred State College Development Fund Inc.

Wilder is a 1977 graduate of Alfred State and will lead the board challenged with fund-raising and overseeing the school's endowments. A recent Centennial Capital Campaign raised $7.4 million for the college.

Phillips enviro practice cited in Chambers pub

Phillips Lytle LLP has been included in Chambers USA's "America's Leading Lawyers for Business" directory for outstanding capabilities in environmental law.

The publication states that Phillips Lytle's environmental practice team "has developed a superb knowledge of local environmental law and clients agree that they would not hesitate to turn to it for advice on New York environmental regulation." A legal directory widely used by in-house counsel, "Leading Lawyers for Business" is published by U.K.-based Chambers and Partners. Its entries are based on independent research and interviews with lawyers and their clients.

Area lawyer writes book on social media and law

Lawyer Adrian Dayton has written a book on how law firms can embrace Twitter as a development tool. Dayton's book, "Social Media for Lawyers: Twitter Edition," was published by Ark Group and Managing Partner Magazine.

Dayton, an Amherst resident, is CEO of Adrian Dayton PR, and formerly practiced at Jaeckle Fleischmann & Mugel LLP.

Bouvier, Hurwitz lawyers make Super Lawyers cut

Bouvier Partnership litigators Norm Greene, Paul Hammond and George Collins were included in the 2009 edition of New York Super Lawyers.

Among the other area lawyers recognized in the publication were 10 attorneys from Hurwitz & Fine PC: Robert Fine, for business/corporat practice; Lawrence Franco, business/corporate; Dan Kohane, insurance coverage; Ann Evanko, employment and labor; Paul Suozzi, personal-injury defense; Roger Ross, real estate; Lawrence Ross, health care; Michael Perley, personal-injury defense; and Andrea Schillaci, business litigation.

- Compiled by Matt Chandler