Lamont Nominates 14 Lawyers to Connecticut Superior Court

Gov. Ned Lamont nominated 14 lawyers to Connecticut’s Superior Court on Tuesday, tapping a group that includes his former budget director, a one-time Republican state legislator, and the former state health care advocate to fill a bench with 20 current vacancies.

The nominees span the breadth of Connecticut’s legal community: five lawyers from the attorney general’s office, a prosecutor, a public defender, a legal aid attorney, and lawyers from private firms large and small. Nine of the 14 are men; five are women.

“I am proud that our administration has a record of selecting nominees who’ve expanded the diversity, backgrounds and professional experiences of those who serve our court system,” Lamont said.

The governor had telegraphed one pick in advance. Jeffrey R. Beckham, 62, of Tolland spent his career in state government, most recently as secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, where he served as Lamont’s top fiscal adviser before stepping down last year. Beckham holds a law degree from Florida State University.

The former Republican lawmaker in the group is John Shaban, 61, of Redding, who represented his district in the State House from 2011 to 2017. He now works as a commercial litigator at Levine and Levine and is a graduate of Pace University School of Law.

Theodore M. Doolittle, 62, of West Hartford brings an unusually varied resume. A Harvard graduate with a law degree from UConn, Doolittle served as a federal prosecutor, as Connecticut’s state attorney general, and most recently as the state’s health care advocate, an office charged with protecting consumers navigating insurance disputes. His path to this nomination wound through federal immigration court, where he served as a judge until the Trump administration dismissed him along with dozens of other immigration judges still in their two-year probationary period.

The remaining nominees reflect the range Lamont described.

Campbell D. Barrett, 56, of Durham is a partner at Pullman and Comley, where he co-chairs the family law and appellate practice groups. He graduated from Trinity College and American University’s Washington College of Law.

Patrick M. Fahey, 57, of Glastonbury is a partner at Shipman and Goodwin with a background in complex litigation. He holds degrees from the College of the Holy Cross and UConn School of Law.

Sean Kehoe, 53, of West Hartford leads the government administration division at the state attorney general’s office. A Providence College graduate, he earned his law degree from Quinnipiac University School of Law.

Felice Gray-Kemp, 57, of Hamden has practiced privately after years as in-house counsel for major corporations including United Technologies, Amphenol Corporation, and Chemtura Corporation. She is a Yale graduate with a UConn law degree.

Nisa Khan, 38, of West Hartford is an assistant attorney general in the child protection section, where she manages appellate practice and represents the Department of Children and Families before the state’s Appellate and Supreme courts. She graduated from St. John’s University and Albany Law School.

Seán McGuinness, 41, of Norwalk is a supervisory assistant state’s attorney in the Bridgeport state’s attorney’s office. He earned both his undergraduate and law degrees from Quinnipiac University.

All nominees require confirmation by the legislature’s Judiciary Committee before they can take the bench.

The 20 vacancies Lamont is working to fill reflect a broader strain on Connecticut’s court system. Superior Court handles the overwhelming bulk of civil, criminal, family, and housing cases across the state. Extended judicial vacancies slow dockets and push cases back months, sometimes longer, a pressure that falls hardest on litigants who cannot afford protracted delays.

Lamont has made judicial appointments a consistent feature of his time in office, and this latest class continues a pattern of drawing nominees from across professional backgrounds rather than predominantly from private practice or a single political orbit. Whether the Judiciary Committee moves quickly on the nominations will depend partly on the legislature’s broader calendar this session.