Former Connecticut Supreme Court Associate Justice Peter T. Zarella will join the law firm of McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLP in January as a member of its appellate and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) practice groups.
Zarella, who announced his retirement from the bench Thursday, was appointed to Connecticut’s highest court in 2001. He will be based in the firm’s Hartford and Southport, Conn., offices, serving clients on a nationwide basis.
McElroy’s appellate practice group was established soon after the firm’s founding in 1983 by William T. McElroy, a former New Jersey appellate court judge. Current members of the practice group include Ronald J. Riccio, former dean of Seton Hall Law School, as well as Zarella’s former colleague on the Connecticut Supreme Court, retired Justice C. Ian McLachlan.
With Justice McLachlan and attorney Daniel J. Klau, Zarella will help strengthen the professional depth of its appellate practice, which provides representation to parties and amici curiae, as well as discrete appellate services for attorneys. The practice group also provides guidance to trial counsel on specific appellate cases during trial.
A Massachusetts native, Zarella was in private law practice from 1977 to 1996, and a partner in the Hartford firm of Brown, Paindiris & Zarella. He served as a judge in the Connecticut Superior Court from 1996 to 2000, and then as an Appellate Court judge until his appointment to the Connecticut Supreme Court. He lives in Essex.
