History

James Harrington and Mark Mahoney partnered in 1995, each bringing with them decades of legal knowledge and expertise to create one of Western New York's premier criminal defense firms, Harrington & Mahoney.

Jim Harrington, a graduate of the University at Buffalo Law School and LeMoyne College, had already been in private practice for 26 years when Harrington & Mahoney began. Jim began his career in 1969 as an attorney with Neighborhood Legal Services, providing legal services for indigent clients in civil matters. He then entered private practice, concentrating on criminal law, also serving as a confidential law clerk to Judge J. Douglas Trost, Erie County Family Court Judge, from 1978-1980.

In 1982, one of Jim Harrington's first high-profile cases was in the defense of Owen Carron, a member of the British Parliament, and a leader of Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland. Carron was arrested while attempting to enter the United States from Canada. Arrested with Carron was Danny Morrison, another leader in Sinn Fein. Morrison was represented by Mark Mahoney.

Mark Mahoney graduated from Notre Dame University, in 1971, and later the University at Buffalo Law School. Mark has been practicing criminal defense since 1974, beginning as a clerk, then associate, and finally partner with the firm of Doyle, Diebold & Bermingham. At the time, Vincent E. Doyle, Jr. and Joseph D. Bermingham were two of the most prominent criminal defense lawyers in Buffalo, and both were leaders in the state and local bar associations. The firm continued, first as Diebold, Bermingham, Gorman, Brown & Bridge, after Mr. Doyle was elected to the New York Supreme Court in 1988, where he continued as a Justice until his untimely death in 2006. Bermingham, Cook & Mahoney was formed in 1989, but Mr. Mahoney left that firm and did what he had hoped to do for some time, form a partnership with Jim Harrington. 

Our associates, Connor C. Dougherty, Winter E. Eaton, and Zachary E. Buncy are all graduates of the University at Buffalo Law School. Each began their work for Harrington & Mahoney as law clerks, before joining the firm as Associate Attorneys following their admissions to the New York State Bar.