Norman A. Pattis | Attorney

Norman A. Pattis is one of Connecticut's best known and passionate criminal defense lawyers and civil rights attorneys. Notable civil rights included Kevin King v. Mark Verdone, et al., in which he obtained a judgment of more than $2 million for a prisoner beaten during an escape attempt; Peterson, et al. v. City of Hartford, in which nine white and Hispanic firefighters won a reverse discrimination verdict against the city's fire department; Broadnax v. New Haven, in which he won a $1.5 million verdict on behalf of a the city's highest ranking female firefighter. In Higgins v. Burleigh, et al., Pattis won a $700,000 verdict for a young boxer beaten by police officers outside a nightclub. He has also won many other federal civil rights verdicts for police brutality, false arrest, malicious prosecution, denial of equal protection of the law, discrimination and other civil rights. He once tracked down the financier of a brutal contract shooting, forcing a settlement after the man filed bankruptcy to avoid the civil trial, and after several days of cross-examination of the financier and his ex-wife designed to show that their "divorce" was little more than a fraudulent conveyance.

Pattis has also represented those accused of crimes in state and federal courts. He obtained an acquittal on two counts of attempted murder of police officers arising from the point-blank shooting of two Middletown officers during an arrest. He also won an acquittal for a man accused of felony murder in the course of a high-speed chase in which a police officer died. In another case, he won acquittals for two men accused of beating several police officers. He has successfully defended charges of weapons, charges, narcotics charges, sexual assault, bank robbery and embezzlement. He has defended capital cases on both the trial and appellate level. His defense of Lon Grammar and Tonica Jenkins, both accused of fraudulently obtaining admission to Yale University in separate incidents, attracted national attention.

A former member of the staff of Gerry Spence's Trial Lawyers College in Wyoming, Pattis has also served as a faculty member for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. He has also been a guest speaker before bar association groups, including the Idaho Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Pattis also writes a weekly column for The Connecticut Law Tribune, found most weeks at www.law.com/ct , and blogs almost daily at Crime & Federalism, a site originating in California.

He is a frequent commentator on legal topics on television and radio.His first attempt at fiction, Dark Justice, was published in serial form by The Connecticut Law Tribune. He is also owner of the Whitlock Farm Booksellers, a used and rare bookstore located in Bethany and operating out of two barns since 1948.Pattis has argued in the Connecticut Appellate and Supreme Courts, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second and Sixth Circuits, and has appeared before the United States Supreme Court in prisoner's rights litigation.

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