James “Jim” Heckman, state Banking Commissioner Howard Pitkin’s right-hand man for a decade, juggling lobbying, media and chief of staff chores, has taken his talents to the private sector after more than 20 years of state service.
Since late January, Heckman has been on the payroll of the CT Realtors, formerly the Connecticut Association of Realtors, in East Hartford, as its principal lobbyist, just as state lawmakers get rolling this legislative session.
Before them is a proposal to tweak Connecticut’s judicial process for handling foreclosures, often singled out among critics in and outside the state for being too slow in the final resolution of mortgage defaults.
Heckman, 45, a UConn and Quinnipiac Law grad who lives in Farmington, is a seasoned hand in banking regulations, should prove invaluable to helping one of the state’s biggest realty lobbies shape legislation that addresses the needs of the marketplace while perhaps giving brokers a bigger hand — and fee stake — in the foreclosure process.
Meantime, Heckman’s successor at the banking department, Bruce Adams, is a former counsel in the governor’s office, where he spent just under two years. Before that, Adams was with the UConn Foundation and a lawyer at Day Pitney.
Adams is a graduate of The Pomfret School in the state’s northeast corner, and a graduate of UConn Law School. — Gregory Seay
