While other kids clutched their speeches with sweaty palms and pounding hearts, she confidently commanded the attention of her middle school classmates. She won the declaration contest and took runner-up another year. The young public speaker knew that she wanted to spend her life doing this.
Now an associate at Halloran & Sage LLP in Hartford, Taylor Norton commands the courtroom with the same skill.
Norton, 30, knew that she wanted to be an attorney since grammar school and has fulfilled that dream.
“I don’t think I knew what attorneys did, but I loved public speaking and politics,” she said. “I essentially knew in junior high and high school that I would go on this career path.”
Norton graduated from the University of Connecticut with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2000. She went on to receive her law degree at UConn in 2004.
The Berlin native spent time at the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii but knew that she wanted to return to the Kensington section of her hometown when her time on the islands was over.
“It’s the town I grew up in, my family and friends are here and I love the small town feel,” Norton said. “Although I did enjoy [Hawaii], I knew I would come back.”
The past high school class president and Model UN leader now practices in the civil and insurance defense litigation area of law.
“I spend a couple of hours of the day in court,” Norton said. “When I’m not there I’m researching or drafting pleadings, doing investigative work. I love the courtroom and I like knowing that at the end of the day I’m helping someone.”
Norton spent two summers working as a temporary associate at Halloran & Sage. She got assigned work from lawyers in the firm and got a chance to decide if the placement was right for her.
“The experience here has always been extremely positive,” Norton said. “It wasn’t even a thought process to come back.”
She briefly took a job at a Takeda Pharmacueticals of North America before deciding that law was what she really wanted to be doing.
“I think with law, it’s never a clear answer, even for an experienced attorney,” Norton said. “Every day is a new day and it can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. When you find that answer that is right it’s a very rewarding feeling.”
Emily Boisvert is a Hartford Business Journal staff writer.
Fresh Faces Commanding Court
