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The Litigators
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Business New Haven
3/4/2002
By: Linda Mele
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People and business owners who need the services of an attorney who can try a case turn not just to lawyers - but to litigators.
“My view has always been, with no disrespect intended to my colleagues who don't go to court, is that there's little distinction in being a lawyer if you don't try cases,” says Hugh Keefe, a nationally recognized New Haven attorney who is board-certified in both civil and
criminal trial advocacy. He earned the dual certification from the National Board of Trial Advocacy in 1980.
Keefe is one of many litigators in the state - attorneys who actually try cases - and one of the best. He is currently a partner in the firm of Lynch Traub Keefe & Errante, PC in New Haven.
Keefe received a degree in accounting from Quinnipiac College and went on to UConn Law School, from which he was graduated in 1967. That's where he caught the bug.
“When I was in my senior year in college I became fascinated with the excitement and challenge of the law and have remained so until this day,” Keefe says.
Keefe is listed as one of the Best Lawyers in America in the area of personal injury and criminal litigation.
Richard (Rick) Altschuler of Altschuler & Altschuler in West Haven goes to work each day in the Altschuler Building that was built in 1872, diagonally across from City Hall.
Anyone who has been in a courtroom in which Altschuler is trying a case knows he is not shy when it comes to representing a client.
“I had a case where I wore a pair of ice skates into the courtroom claiming the Oksana Baiul defense on a DWI [Driving While Intoxicated] case,” Altschuler recalls, “and another against Federal Express claiming that drug testing employees had to have certain guidelines.
“There was no law at the time, and after my case they passed a law with strict guidelines as to when and how you can test an employee,” Altschuler says.
He also represented Gladys Tyler Burr, who claimed she was wrongly held in a state institution for the mentally retarded for 42 years. He won that landmark case and Burr received a $235,000 settlement in 1985.
William (Willy) Dow, partner in the New Haven firm of Jacobs Grudberg Belt & Dow, was graduated from Yale University in 1963 and spent two years in the Peace Corps. He was originally interested in pursuing opportunities that might be open in a similar service, but “Three of my uncles - older and much wiser - convinced me that law school was an opportunity not to pass up.” So in 1968 he received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Dow joined his present firm in 1976 after a two-year stint as an assistant U.S. attorney and four years in the public defender service in Washington, D.C.
When asked why he chose litigation, Dow says, “Litigation is where the fun is.
“There is nothing more fascinating than dealing with different people, all of whom have different perspectives,” he adds.
Tara Knight, a founder of the firm of Knight Conway & Cerritelli in New Haven, knows exactly why she became a litigator - one of the best in the state: “There is no other kind of law for me,” she says. “It is a calling, not a job. A lawyer, to me, is a trial attorney.”
Knight decided to practice in the New Haven area because she grew up here.
“It is the place where my grandparents are from [and] my parents are from,” she says. “It is a lovely city with wonderful architecture, lighting, culture and ethnicity.”
Some of Knight's highest profile cases include the Michael Skakel murder trial and the state vs. Peter Reilly. She is currently defense counsel in State of Connecticut vs. Beth Carpenter, a capital murder trial in New London.
Norman Pattis, a graduate of Purdue (1977) and Columbia (1980), was graduated from the UConn School of Law in 1993. Before becoming an attorney he taught political philosophy and government, was an editorial writer, and worked in government service.
“In each of my prior lives I quickly came to feel either marginalized or bored,” Pattis recalls. “The law brings all the things I have done together - it is intellectually challenging and I can make a difference in someone's life.”
Barry Sinoway, known as one of the state's top litigators in the fields of medical malpractice, personal injury and workers‚ compensation, says he practices here “because it's home.”
When asked why he concentrates on litigation, Sinoway says, “It's an exciting area of the law.
“You are required to communicate in a clear, direct and simple way to real people about real problems,” he explains.
When all is said and done, Altschuler claims that lawyers turn to litigation because, “It's where the rubber meets the road.
“When a case can't be resolved through mediation or arbitration, it's the power and skill of litigation that truly resolves disputes,” Altschuler says.
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