The Honorable W. Patrick Falvey

The Hon. W. Patrick Falvey (Ret.) was a judge for the Yates County Court Multi-Bench in the Seventh Judicial District of New York. He was elected to the County Court in 1998. Falvey retired in 2016.

During his tenure on the County Court, he served as an acting justice of the Yates County Supreme Court beginning in 1998 and as presiding justice of the Yates County Criminal, Juvenile, and Family Drug Treatment Courts beginning in 2002.

A Vietnam Veteran, Falvey served in the U.S. Army from 1968 to 1971 and held the rank of First Lieutenant.

He received a B.A. from Hobart College in 1968. Falvey went on to earn a J.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago, John Marshall Law School in 1975.

After law school, he worked briefly as an attorney for the Department of Social Services in Yates County (1976 to 1977) and was a law clerk to the Hon. Lyman H. Smith, justice with the New York State Supreme Court in the Seventh Judicial District (1976 to 1977). Falvey entered into private in 1976, where he specialized in real estate, business, criminal, and civil litigation. In addition to his private practice, Falvey served as an assistant public defender with the Yates County Public Defender’s Office (1977 to 1980) and as the Yates County District Attorney (1981 to 1988).

His memberships included the New York County Family and Surrogate’s Associations, Yates County Bar Association, the Yates County Alternatives to Incarceration (advisory board), and the County Judges Association of New York State (executive committee, secretary, and treasurer).

Falvey also served as a member of the Keuka College President’s Advisory Council, the Yates County Public Law Library (board of trustees), the Sampson Theatre Advisory Council, the Johnson Costello Post #355 American Legion, the VFW Post #745, the Department of New York American Legion’s Constitution and By-Laws Committee, the Hobart Chapter of the Delta Chi Fraternity (advisory board of trustees), and the St. Michael’s Investment Management Committee.

After retiring from the bench, Falvey was appointed to serve as judge advocate for the New York Department of the American Legion by New York Department Commander Rena M. Nessler in 2017.