William F. Savino

William F. Savino is a Partner in the Litigation Department of Woods Oviatt Gilman, LLP, a regional law firm with offices in Rochester, Buffalo and Albany.

His practice focuses on matters involving business litigation (including construction, corporate and partnership dissolution, and Uniform Commercial Code matters) and insolvency (both debtor and creditor).

In April 2021, Mr. Savino was selected as a Fellow of the Construction Lawyers Society of America (CLSA), an invitation only international honorary.

Mr. Savino graduated cum laude from the University at Buffalo School of Law in 1975. During his senior year, the Buffalo Law Review published a casebook review he authored titled Copyright, Patent, Trademark and Related State Doctrines: Cases and Materials by Paul Goldstein. For five years, Mr. Savino was co-author of the commercial law update for the Law Review at the Syracuse University School of Law.

Since 2012, Mr. Savino has served on the Dean’s Advisory Council for the University at Buffalo School of Law. In May of 2019, Mr. Savino was named the recipient of the Ken Joyce Excellence in Teaching Award by the University at Buffalo School of Law for teaching commercial litigation within the School’s adjunct faculty. In 2023, Mr. Savino received the Law School’s highest honor, the Edwin F. Jaeckle Award.

From 1979 through 2023, Mr. Savino taught business law annually in the University at Buffalo School of Management. Together with two other professors in the SOM, he was published in 2021 by the Journal of Accountancy. For five years, Mr. Savino was co-author of the commercial law update for the Law Review at the Syracuse University School of Law. Together with fellow Buffalo graduate Brian D. Gwitt, Mr. Savino has also been published by the West UCC Bulletin. Also with Mr. Gwitt, Mr. Savino has presented the annual Civil Practice Law and Rules update for the Bar Association of Erie County since 2016.

In 2023, Mr. Savino gave a presentation on “Business Divorce” to New York’s Commercial Part Judges at Fordham University Law School. In 2024, he was lead counsel for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. at trials in Albany and Mineola regarding the New York State presidential ballot.

Mr. Savino repeatedly earned the designation as a Top 10 Upstate New York Attorney and was ranked third in 2013 by Super Lawyers magazine. Mr. Savino has also been often selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® in the fields of Commercial Litigation, Litigation ­Construction, Litigation – Bankruptcy and Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law. Mr. Savino has been named in the Best Lawyers’ 2025 Litigation-Construction “Lawyer of the Year – Buffalo, 2018 Buffalo Litigation – Construction “Lawyer of the Year” and was named Best Lawyers’ 2020 and 2021 Buffalo Litigation – Bankruptcy “Lawyer of the Year.” Additionally, he has been listed as one of Business First of Buffalo’s Who’s Who in Law” List for the past eight years. He has also been named a Legal Elite in Western New York for several years.