What led you to start a law firm?

After a five-year career as an FBI agent I returned to CT to practice law. I started as a litigator but I found myself doing more bank, real estate and property work and recognized the value of a small, diverse law firm. I started my own firm with a partner in 1978. Over the next several decades the firms I led shifted and changed with the increasingly sophisticated needs of our clients and the explosion of technology. I founded my current firm in 2011 with Amy Zabetakis and now my practice centers on business law, zoning, trusts & estates, nonprofit law, and banking law. I handle a number of trusts, serve as an independent trustee and take on a fair number of complicated inter-family and family business succession planning and related issues. I enjoy the client contact – I like being a problem solver.

How did you develop so many outside business interests?

Most of my more entrepreneurial ventures grew naturally out of relationships I developed as an attorney and a member of the local community. I helped organize and served on the audit, development and executive committees of several community banks in Fairfield County. I’ve also been a director and attorney for Educational Development Corporation, an operator of for-profit colleges in Colorado, and for Pear Tree Point School in Darien. I am a member of a very active Rotary Club where I have held leadership positions and participated in their many service projects. I coached youth sports over three decades and have served as legal counsel for two parish churches. Along the way I served on the New Canaan Town Council for 16 years, the last 11 as Chairman. For the last 12 years, I have been a director at a bio-pharmaceutical development company that is pursuing novel methods of non-addictive pain management and drug delivery platform technologies.

What’s something you’re passionate about?

I really believe in the work of the AmeriCares Foundation, Inc. I have been on its Board of Directors and an officer for 20 years. It’s an incredible organization and I’m proud of it’s great work, which includes Americares Free Clinics in Connecticut, improving health care in the USA and in impoverished countries, and being among the first responders at major disaster relief efforts around the world, most recently for Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Hurricane Irma in the Caribbean.

What’s your secret to staying focused?

I stick to a schedule. I like to start each day at the gym, then I check my e-mails over breakfast before I head to the office with our rescue office dog, Nico, riding shotgun. The first thing I do when I arrive is to take care of whatever is on my desk for that day. I like to learn and I like the adventure of doing different things.

What do you do to relax?

Our beach house in Rhode Island is a wonderful place for me to relax and renew. I continue to enjoy sharing life with my wife Debbie, traveling, going to the beach and living in Connecticut. I like growing things and spending time in the garden. Time spent with my family, especially our six grandchildren, is another great source of relaxation and joy. I also like to read, especially historical novels, and I’m partial to English mysteries on television.