JUSTICE JOHN M. CURRAN is a graduate of the University of Dayton (magna cum laude 1981) and the University at Buffalo School of Law (1984). He was appointed to the Supreme Court by Governor George E. Pataki in June of 2004 and was elected to a full fourteen-year term in November of 2004.

Justice Curran began his career in the commercial litigation department of a large Miami, Florida law firm until returning to Buffalo in 1987. Justice Curran concentrated his law practice in commercial litigation and has experience in handling a wide variety of business disputes. At the time he became a Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Curran was a partner in the trial department of Phillips Lytle LLP, one of upstate New York´s largest law firms. Justice Curran also served as Orchard Park Town Justice from 1996 until the time he was appointed to the Supreme Court bench. Justice Curran is a member of the adjunct faculty at Canisius College and for many years has been a lecturer at various CLE programs.

Justice Curran is admitted to practice law in the States of New York and Florida and was admitted to practice before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second and Eleventh Circuits, United States District Courts for the Western, Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, the Western District of Pennsylvania, the Southern District of Florida and the Northern District of Ohio. He is a member of the American Law Institute, the Erie County Bar Association, the Association of Justices of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, the New York State Magistrate's Association and the Erie County Judge's and Police Conference.

Justice Curran is a past president of the University at Buffalo School of Law Alumni Association and a past president of the Canisius High School Alumni Association. He served as Orchard Park Village Trustee from 1991 to 1993, as Vice President and Director of the Orchard Park Chamber of Commerce during a period of six years and is a volunteer for many organizations in his community, including as a Little League baseball coach.