John F. Conway, Attorney

John F. Conway practices in the areas of commercial and business litigation, appellate litigation and municipal law. He represents privately and publicly owned businesses and individual clients in commercial litigation involving trade secrets, shareholder disputes, employment, unfair trade practices, trademark and other business related contract disputes. He also has extensive experience representing municipalities and school boards in litigation involving employment, civil rights, constitutional law and land use claims.

In 2009, Mr. Conway achieved two victories in appeals decided by the Connecticut Supreme Court.  In May v. Coffey, Mr. Conway defended a hedge fund in a corporate governance action alleging breaches of fiduciary duty.  In a unanimous 5-0 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the earlier trial court's ruling to dismiss the suit in its entirety and, in so doing, reinforced the principle that shareholders cannot bring a direct suit against a corporation's officers or directors unless they have suffered and injury that is separate and distinct from any other injury suffered by the corporation and its shareholders.   In Waterbury Twin, LLC v. Renal Treatment Centers-Northeast, Inc., Mr. Conway successfully argued before the Supreme Court on behalf of a publicly traded company that operates dialysis centers throughout the United States.  In a 3-2 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the trial court's decision to dismiss the plaintiff-landlord's action seeking to evict the firm's client from a leased commercial property on which it operated a successful dialysis center.  In its decision, the Supreme Court explicitly adopted the bright line rule, argued by Mr. Conway, that requires a landlord to issue a new notice to quit following the withdrawal of a summary process action in order to maintain a second eviction action.  This decision clarified a split of authority amongst Connecticut trial courts, and established an important new precedent in Connecticut 's summary process procedure.    

Mr. Conway often serves as local Connecticut counsel to international law firms whose clients have matters pending in Connecticut state and federal courts. For example Mr. Conway, as co-counsel with a large Washington D.C. based law firm, represented the Republican Governors Association in connection with litigation relating to the collapse of Enron.  After a lengthy evidentiary hearing, the trial court dismissed all claims against the RGA. In State v. Philip Morris, Mr. Conway successfully represented several tobacco manufacturers in litigation resulting in two Connecticut Supreme Court decisions ordering the State of Connecticut to arbitrate disputes relating to the multi-billion dollar master settlement agreement between the tobacco manufacturers and the State of Connecticut.

Mr. Conway is a former law clerk to the late Honorable J. Daniel Mahoney of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He is a graduate of Fordham Law School, where he was an editor of the Fordham Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree, cum laude, from Lehigh University's School of Economics and Business. Before joining Loughlin FitzGerald, Mr. Conway was a partner with Wiggin & Dana, LLP in New Haven.

Mr. Conway has been featured in the following articles:

Donna Tommelleo, "Fate of church files unclear", New Haven Register, No. 11 (Jan. 11, 2003)

Rebecca Baker, "Hamden files lawsuit in Laurel View case", New Haven Register (Aug. 23, 2001)