Judge Eugene A. Lucci

EUGENE A. LUCCI was elected in 2022 to serve a full term on the Eleventh District Court of Appeals commencing February 9, 2023, and currently is its presiding judge. Prior to taking the appellate bench, Judge Lucci served as a judge on the Lake County Common Pleas Court, General Division, commencing in January 2001. Prior to being elected a judge, Lucci was engaged in the private practice of law from 1980 to 2000 and was a founding member and senior partner of the Mentor, Ohio law firm of McNamara, Lucci, Hanrahan & Loxterman. Lucci is a retired police officer of 13 years, having served as a police patrol officer for the City of Painesville and University Circle Police Departments, and later with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office as a detective.

Judge Lucci earned his bachelor’s degree from Case Western Reserve University in January 1975, his law degree from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in March 1980, and his Master of Judicial Studies degree from the University of Nevada, Reno in May 2012. He holds a Certificate in Judicial Development, General Jurisdiction Trial Skills, from the National Judicial College in 2004, and is an Inaugural Fellow of the Advanced Science & Technology Adjudication Resource (ASTAR) Program, Washington DC, in October 2006. Judge Lucci has been admitted to practice law in Ohio in 1980 and Florida in 1982 and is a certified instructor for the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy. Judge Lucci is a commissioner on the Board of Professional Conduct.

He is one of 60 judges nationwide who were selected in November 2023 for high level training in data science and artificial intelligence, comprising an 18-month long project funded by a State Justice Institute grant to the National Courts & Sciences Institute. This project has two specific goals: (1) certification of resource judges to aid their colleagues and courts regarding the rapidly expanding evidence and issues presented by big data and several forms of artificial intelligence; and (2) development of adjudication tools – bench books, bench cards, training modules, and resource web sites among them – to assist the work of the courts in criminal, civil, and equitable cases, with special emphasis on the qualification of expert witnesses.