John Buonora is a retired Chief Assistant District Attorney of Suffolk County. He entered St. John’s University School of Law in 1962 on a Sir Thomas More Scholarship, graduating in 1965. After a brief period in private practice, he joined the Queens County District Attorney’s Office, where he tried his first homicide case at the age of twenty-six. He joined the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office in 1969, and over the next 12 years served as the Chief Trial Assistant District Attorney and Chief of the District Court Bureau. He left the Office in 1980 to form the law practice of Gallo & Buonora where he specialized in both civil and criminal trial work. In January 2002 he accepted an appointment to return to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office as Chief Assistant to District Attorney Thomas J. Spota. John is a past president of the Suffolk County Bar Association as well as the Suffolk County Criminal Bar Association. His honors include the Suffolk County Bar Association Director’s Awards in recognition of his work as Chairman of the Alternate Dispute Resolution Task Force and as a member of the Judicial Screening Task Force. He has also received a Special Presidential Award for his work as Co-Chairman of the District Court Pro Se Task Force. He has also served on the Part 150 Independent Judicial Qualification Commission as well as the Suffolk County Bar Association's Judicial Screening Committee. John presently serves on the Executive Committee of the Alexander Hamilton Inn of Court. He has written and taught in the areas of criminal law, criminal procedure, and trial advocacy.