The Hon. Richard L. Buchter is a Justice of the Queens County Supreme Court, Criminal Term in the Eleventh Judicial District of New York. He was elected to the judicial position in 1993 and re-elected in 2007. He had previously served as an Acting Justice of the Queens County Supreme Court after being appointed by the Hon. Jonathan Lippman, former Chief Administrative Judge of the State of New York in 1987. At the time of his appointment, Justice Buchter was seated as a judge for the Civil Court of the City of New York.
He received his B.A. from Queens College of the City University of New York. He went on to earn his J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law in 1974.
Buchter began his legal career as an assistant district attorney with the Queens County District Attorney’s Office after graduating from law school in 1974. Two years later, he began serving as a principal law clerk for the Hon. Ann B. Dufficy with the Queens County Supreme Court and remained in that capacity until assuming the Civil Court bench in 1987.