Download Presenters' Biographies for Family Matters Training Project in CT and more Schemes and Mind Maps Family Law in PDF only on Docsity!
The Training and Coordination Project For Guardians Ad Litem and
Attorneys for Minor Children In Family Matters
Biographies of Presenters
Harry Adamakos, Ph.D. is a Clinical Psychologist who has been licensed in Connecticut since 1989. He is also licensed in New York and Rhode Island. Graduating from Bowling Green State University (Ohio) in 1987, Dr. Adamakos has been working with children, adults, adults, and families for over 25 years. Previous work experiences include being a Psychologist Intern at Fairfield Hills Hospital and the Greater Bridgeport Children's Psychiatric Services Center and being a staff psychologist with the Greater Bridgeport Children's Services Center. Teaching positions have included being an Assistant Professor at Western Connecticut State University and Adjunct Professor at Fairfield University and the University of Bridgeport. In addition to his private practice, Dr. Adamakos is a consultant with Stratford Community Services, The Exchange Club Center of Stamford, The Stamford School-Based Health Centers, and Kids-in-Crisis in Greenwich. His work with families in various stages of divorce spans two decades as both a private practice clinical psychologist and a forensic evaluator. Dr. Adamakos has served as a GAL and also serves as a Special Master with the Regional Family Trial Docket in Middletown. Dr. Adamakos' primary practice remains in Bridgeport, but recently he has begun providing services in the Greenwich-Stamford area, as well.
Hon. Gerard I. Adelman was appointed to the Superior Court bench in 2009. Prior to his appointment, Judge Adelman was a partner in the Meriden firm of Weigand, Mahon & Adelman, P.C., where he practiced family law, including service as an attorney or guardian ad litem for minor children and as a Special Master for the Regional Family Trial Docket. While in practice, he was an active member of the Connecticut Bar Association, Family Law Section, and was awarded the CBA’s Pro Bono Service Award in 1995. Judge Adelman received his bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University, an MA in history from Southern Connecticut State University, and his JD from the University of Connecticut School of Law. He is currently assigned to the Regional Family Trial Docket.
Barry F. Armata, J.D., is a Partner in the firm of Brown, Paindiris & Scott, LLP with offices in Hartford, Glastonbury, and Bristol, Connecticut where he concentrates his practice in the area of family law, mediation and collaborative divorce, with an emphasis on advocating the interest of children in conflicted custody cases. Attorney Armata received his B.A. degree, magna cum laude, in economics and sociology from Boston College in 1981. After graduating from Syracuse University College of Law in 1983, he was admitted to the Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in June, 1984, and was admitted to the Bar of the State of Connecticut in November,
- Attorney Armata has frequently spoken on topics in family law for the Connecticut Council for Divorce Mediation, the Connecticut Bar Association and Family Service Division of the Connecticut Judicial Branch, as well as other groups
in Connecticut. He is a past-chair of the Family Law Committee of the Hartford County Bar Association and is also a member of the Connecticut Bar Association (Secretary, Executive Committee of the Family Law Section), American Bar Association (Family Law Section), and the Connecticut Council for Divorce Mediation (Past President). Attorney Armata is a founding member of the Collaborative Divorce Lawyers’ Association and the Central Connecticut Collaborative Family Law Group, a member of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts and the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals. He is an informational & referral attorney for Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund, a charter member of the Capital Area Foundation for Equal Justice and has participated in the “Law Works for People” program. He has served as a Connecticut delegate for the Tri-State Conference on Family Law and has served with the High Conflict and Lawyering Sub-Committees of the Governor’s Commission on Family Law. Attorney Armata has been elected as a Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation James W. Cooper Fellows Program. He is also a founding member of the Academy of Child Advocacy. In 2009, Connecticut Supreme Court Chief Chase T. Rogers named Attorney Armata to the Parenting Education Program and Advisory Committee, where he continues to serve. Attorney Armata was a co-editor for the Connecticut Family Lawyer ’s edition on Child Advocacy, co-authoring an article with Mark Dubois, Chief Disciplinary Counsel on “Grievances and the Guardian ad Litem”. He is also a contributing author on the Use of Experts for the Family Law Education Reform Project, and a contributor to the Amicus Curiae brief in Carrubba vs. Moskowitz on behalf of The Children’s Law Center.
Margaret M. Bozek, J.D. is a member of Mickelson, Jacobs and Bozek, LLC located in West Hartford, Connecticut. She is a graduate of Albertus Magnus College and the University of Connecticut School of Law. As a family law attorney, her practice includes collaborative divorce, mediation, litigation, and the representation of minor children. She serves as a Special Master for Hartford Superior Court, New Britain Superior Court and the Regional High Conflict Custody Court. She volunteers for the Attorney Advice Day Program in Hartford Superior Court and the Families in Transition Program at the Children's Law Center in Hartford, Connecticut. She is a member of the Connecticut Council of Collaborative Divorce Professionals, the Central Connecticut Collaborative Family Law Group, the International Association of Collaborative Professionals, and the Connecticut Bar Association. She is a co- chair of the Family Law Section of the Hartford County Bar Association. Margaret is admitted to practice law in Connecticut.
Hon. Elizabeth A. Bozzuto is a Superior Court judge first appointed by Governor John G. Rowland in 2000. She is currently serving as the Chief Administrative Judge for the Family Division and sits in Hartford hearing family cases. Previously, Judge Bozzuto served as the Assistant Administrative Judge for the Waterbury and Litchfield Judicial Districts. Judge Bozzuto also served as the Presiding Judge for Family Matters at the Regional Family Trial docket, and in Danbury, and has also been assigned to Bridgeport and Bristol. She is a member of the Judge’s Executive
American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, and former Chair of the Family Law Section of the Connecticut Bar Association, and former Co-Chair of the American Bar Association's Family Law Section Ethics, Professionalism and Grievance Committee. Judge Colin has lectured and written both nationally and in Connecticut on family law issues in general and trial practice in particular, and has been a frequent speaker to the Connecticut Bar Association Family Law Section on recent developments in Connecticut Family Law.
Hon. Bernadette Conway began her career in 1979 as a Registered Nurse. She worked nights in the intensive care unit while attending law school at the University of Bridgeport. Judge Conway began her legal career as a Special Deputy Assistant State’s Attorney, where she wrote and argued state criminal cases on appeal before the State Appellate and Supreme Courts. A former Registered Nurse and Assistant State’s Attorney, Judge Conway became a Connecticut Superior Court Judge in March of 1999. Judge Conway was first assigned to criminal court in Hartford, and in September of 1999, was assigned to Juvenile Court in New Haven, where she became presiding judge in 2000. She now serves in New Haven family court. Judge Conway is also an adjunct professor at Quinnipiac University School of Law, where she teaches a class on “Advanced Child Protection Law.”
Steven Dembo, J.D. is a partner with Berman, Bourns, Aaron and Dembo, LLC, in West Hartford, CT. He graduated from Western New England College School of Law, and was admitted to practice in Connecticut in 1990. Attorney Dembo has served as a special master, a GAL, and an AMC in numerous cases. He specializes in trial level and appellate level family law.
Joseph DiTunno is a Program Manger within the Connecticut Judicial Branch Court Support Services Division. He oversees the domestic violence contracted services, the Parent Education Program and the Fatherhood Initiative. From 1993-2004, Mr. DiTunno was a Family Relations Counselor. As part of this responsibility, he conducted custody evaluations and mediations for parents with child related disputes in the Family Civil Court and within the adult criminal court domestic violence intakes and assessments
Sharon Wicks Dornfeld, J.D. is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Michigan Law School.. She has practiced in Danbury since 1983. Her practice consists of representing minor children in high conflict custody and visitation disputes, guardianship, termination of parental rights and adoption matters, neglect and abuse matters, and as criminal victims of abuse. She also serves the City of Danbury as an Assistant Corporation Counsel. Attorney Dornfeld is a member of the American Bar Association, Connecticut Bar Association, (Chair, Family Law Section 2011-12), Danbury Bar Association (President 1995), National Association of Counsel for Children, and Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, and is a Life Fellow of both the Connecticut Bar
Foundation and American Bar Foundation. She has served as a member of the Attorney Grievance Panels for the Waterbury and Litchfield Judicial Districts. She also serves as a Special Master, Regional Family Trial Docket, and as an Attorney Trial Referee, Fact-Finder and Arbitrator. With Professor Carolyn Kaas, she co-authored Advocating for Connecticut’s Children During Their Parents’ Divorces and Custody Disputes After Carrubba v. Moskowitz: The Past, the Present and the Future State of the Law for Attorneys for Minor Children and Guardians ad Litem, 81 CONN. B. J. 229 (2007).
Lisa Dumond, J.D. is a sole practitioner with an office in Prospect, CT. Her practice areas include divorce, custody, and serving as a Guardian ad litem and AMC in both Superior Court and Probate Court matters. She is a graduate of Post University with a B.S. in Legal Studies summa cum laude and Quinnipiac University School of Law with a J.D. awarded magna cum laude. In addition to her legal practice, Attorney Dumond is an Associate Professor at Post University, teaching courses in family law, real estate law, wills, trusts and estates. She is the author of The Undeserving Heir: Domestic Elder Abuser’s Right to Inherit, 23 QUINN. PROB. L.J.214 (2010).
Anne Epstein, J.D. graduated from Benjamin Cardozo School of Law in 1993. She joined the Adelman Law Firm in New Haven in 1997, and has been a partner since 2002. Anne serves as a special master in Middletown at the Regional Family Trial Docket and other judicial districts, and practices primarily in Family Law, serving as a GAL or AMC in many cases.
Thomas A. Esposito, J.D., CWLS received his law degree from the Quinnipiac University School of Law in 1990. Since his admission to the Connecticut Bar in the same year, Attorney Esposito has concentrated his law practice in the areas of divorce, custody, child protection and assisted reproduction technology law (ART). He also represents pre-adoptive parents in connection with open adoption agreements as part of a program through The Connecticut Association of Foster and Adoptive Parents. In 2010 Attorney Esposito received his certification from The National Association of Counsel for Children as a Certified Child Welfare Law Specialist as authorized by the American Bar Association and the Rules Committee of the Connecticut Superior Court. He regularly serves as a special master in the New Haven Family Court and at the Regional Family Trial Docket and since 2002 has acted as a mediator in the Judicial Branch’s Child Protection Mediation Program. Attorney Esposito also serves as Trustee on the Community Mediation, Inc. Board of Directors. Attorney Esposito has served on several Connecticut Judicial Branch Committees and Task Forces including the Juvenile Practice Book Revisions Task Force, The Training, Standards and Qualifications of Child Protection Attorneys Committee, the Non-Adversarial Dispute Resolution Committee and the Committee on Uniformity of Court Procedures in Family and Juvenile Matters. He has lectured at statewide conferences and seminars on the topics of custody, visitation, child protection litigation and open adoption, and in
pursue legal permanent residence for battered spouses, and she has recently filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of victims of trafficking and employer abuse. Sheila has also served as Public Interest Advisor and Mentor In Residence at Yale Law School. She currently serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors for IRIS, or Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, a New Haven-based non-profit which assists refugees and other immigrants as they establish new lives in communities across Connecticut.
Sidney Horowitz, Ph.D., received a B.A. (Psychology) from Binghamton University, an M.S. (Social Research) from Hunter College, and a Ph.D. (Clinical Psychology) from the Ohio State University. Over the past thirty years, he has been involved in working with children, adolescents and adults in various capacities. He has worked as the Director of Psychological Services for the Waterbury Regional Department of Pediatrics (for St. Mary’s Hospital and Waterbury Hospital), chaired a Child Protection Team, consulted to private industry and state agencies, served as a Special Master for high conflict divorce cases at the Regional Family Trial Docket, provided forensic evaluation and testimony in civil and criminal matters, and has been involved in the assessment, treatment and diagnosis of children, adolescents and adults in his independent practice. Dr. Horowitz was a member of the clinical faculty in Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine for 18 years and also served as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. Dr. Horowitz is a member of the American Psychological Association, Connecticut Psychological Association, the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, and is presently serving as co-president for the Connecticut Council for Divorce Mediation and Collaborative Practice.
Robert A. Horwitz, Ph.D. is a psychologist in independent practice in New Haven specializing in psychological evaluation and treatment of children, adolescents, adults, couples and families. In addition to performing custody/visitation studies in contested divorce cases, he also does pre- and post-divorce therapy, divorce mediation, and parent coordination, and is certified to serve as a court-appointed Guardian ad litem for children. Former president of the Connecticut Psychological Association (CPA) and co-president of the Connecticut Council for Divorce Mediation (CCDM), he is currently president of the Connecticut Psychological Foundation and serves on the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Council for Non-Adversarial Divorce (CCND) and the Coordinating Committee of the Connecticut Chapter of the AFCC (Association of Family & Conciliation Courts). Dr. Horwitz has taught and presented at national and international conferences on a wide range of topics involving child development and family dynamics.
Carolyn Wilkes Kaas, J.D ., is an Associate Professor of Law, Quinnipiac University School of Law in Hamden, Connecticut, teaching since 1989. Professor Kaas is the Director of the Clinical Programs and also serves as the Director of the Law School’s Family and Juvenile Law Concentration program, and
co-director of the Center on Dispute Resolution and its Project for Children and the Family. She is currently serving as the co-president of the Connecticut Council on Divorce Mediation and Collaborative Practice. Professor Kaas has taught for twenty years in the in-house Civil Clinic, supervising her students who handled a variety of civil matters, but predominantly family law cases at the trial and appellate levels. She now also teaches the field placement courses. She teaches Negotiation and is the lead professor for the clinical pre-requisite course in interviewing, counseling, and negotiation, called “Introduction to Representing Clients.” She has served as a mediator in family and child protection cases in Connecticut, and is the author of two articles on custody, and one on representing children in Connecticut custody cases. Her current works-in-progress include on article questioning absolute neutrality in child custody mediations, one entitled The Family Lawyer as an Agent of Healing and Reason, and one on teaching professionalism though clinical programs. Professor Kaas graduated from Cornell University in 1976 and received her J.D. with highest honors from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1983. She was a law clerk for the Honorable Ellen Bree Burns in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut and was a litigation associate at Wiggin & Dana for four years before joining the faculty at the law school in 1989.
Howard M. Krieger, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist in independent practice for 30 years. He was trained in psychotherapy, assessment and consultation. Dr. Krieger has extensive experience working with children, adolescents and adults. He received postdoctoral training in neuropsychology at the Yale University school of Medicine. Over the years, Dr. Krieger has developed expertise in working with children and families involved in the legal system in areas of abuse and neglect, divorce and post divorce adjustment, criminal and personal injury litigation and mediation. He has worked for many years as a Special Master at the Regional Family Trial Docket. Dr. Krieger served as an instructor for the state of Connecticut judicial system in the area of child and adolescent development and interviewing skills, training judges, family relations officers, juvenile and adult probation officers and supervisors in the Department of Juvenile and Adult probation. Dr. Krieger is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Connecticut Psychological Association, the American Academy of Neuropsychologist, and the Connecticut Council for Divorce Mediation and Collaboration. He has received Diplomate status in the American Board of Psychological Specialties with a forensic specialty in clinical psychology from the American Board of forensic examiners.
Sandra Lax, J.D. is a 1988 graduate of the University of Bridgeport School of Law. She is a founding partner of the firm Lax and Truax in Fairfield. Her areas of concentration are family law, GAL/AMC work, mediation, and gay and lesbian rights. Sandy is a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, and is currently an adjunct professor at Quinnipiac Law.
over special proceedings and was assigned to Complex Civil Litigation Docket. From 2008-2013, Judge Munro was the Chief Administrative Judge for the Family Division of the Superior Court. Judge Munro has served as chairperson of Continuing Education for all Superior Court Judges in Connecticut. She was a member of the Governor’s Commission on Divorce, Custody, and Family, and of the Chief Justice’s Commission on Attorney Grievance Process. She also served on the Connecticut Bar Association Task Force on the Future of the Legal Profession. Currently, Judge Munro is also an adjunct professor at Quinnipiac University School of Law, teaching Advanced Family Law.
Helen Murphy, J.D. has been a partner with Murphy and Nugent in New Haven since 2000. She has been in private practice with a focus on family law since 1986 and was a Family Relations counselor prior to that for several years in New Haven. She has a master’s degree in counseling and is a certified mediator and nut job. She was instrumental in establishing the special masters program in New Haven Superior Court in 1999, as well as the New Haven Academy of Child Advocacy in 2008. Attorney Murphy has served, by appointment of the courts, as attorney for minor children and guardian ad litem on numerous occasions throughout her legal career.
Hon. Maureen M. Murphy is a Superior Court judge and was formerly a partner in the firm of Murphy, Murphy, and Nugent, LLC. Before her elevation to the bench, she frequently served as a Guardian ad Litem for children in custody disputes. While in practice, she was cooperating attorney with GLAD in Kerrigan v. State of Connecticut, the Connecticut same sex marriage equality case, which resulted in Connecticut being the second state in the country to afford full equality to same sex couples. She was the 2005 recipient of the Connecticut Chapter of the National Organization for Women Harriet Tubman award for social justice, the 2006 recipient of the New Haven Gay and Lesbian Community Center Dorothy Award, and the 2007 Maria Miller Stewart Award from the Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund (CWEALF).
Mary-K O'Sullivan, MA, LMFT, LADC, LPC is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and Drug & Alcohol Counselor, and is also licensed as a Professional Counselor. For more than 20 years, she has educated, trained and provided consultation regionally and nationally in the specialty areas of criminal justice treatment and rehabilitation, co-occurring disorders, women’s issues in treatment and program design. Ms. O’Sullivan has been the director of inpatient, outpatient, and partial hospitalization programs for both adults and adolescents with behavioral health and addictive disorders and is past director of The Center, which was the certification/licensure training facility for substance abuse and prevention for the state of Connecticut. Ms. O’Sullivan is currently completing the requirements for a doctorate in clinical psychology.
Jill Seaman Plancher, J.D. is a volunteer attorney with Connecticut Legal Services in Stamford, Connecticut. As a volunteer attorney in the family law unit of legal services for the past 17 years, Jill has worked with hundreds of women and children to provide safety, stability and freedom from abusive relationships. In this capacity, Jill serves as a legal advisor to the Domestic Abuse Services program of the YWCA in Greenwich.. For the past 12 years Jill has been appointed by the Stamford Superior Court to serve as Guardian Ad Litem and Attorney for Minor Children in contested custody matters before the Stamford Superior Court and Regional Family Trial Docket. In 2011, Jill received the Fairfield County Bar Association’s Liberty Bell Award and the Connecticut Law Tribune’s pro bono award. In 2012, Jill received the Connecticut Bar Association’s Charles Parker Legal Services Award for her commitment to access to justice for all persons. She sits as a member of the state’s Pro Bono Committee, and is a featured speaker on Connecticut Bar Association panels involving child custody and dissolution of marriage. Previously, Jill served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Indianapolis, Indiana where she managed a diverse caseload and prosecuted health care fraud, corporate fraud, violent crimes, and public corruption. Jill was also an Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Bureau of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office. As a state prosecutor, Jill handled a variety of cases which ranged from Environmental crimes to public corruption. Immediately following her graduation from Harvard Law School, Jill was a Federal law clerk for the Honorable Robert E. Keeton. In addition to her Harvard Law education, Jill holds a degree from the University of Pennsylvania in International Relations.
Kenneth Robson, M.D. was born in Chicago, Illinois, and now lives and works in West Hartford, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine before devoting half a century to patient care, teaching, scholarship, and public service--twenty years at the Tufts University School of Medicine and a decade as Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at The Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut. He has authored and edited many books and papers in his field, as well as a book on A. Bartlett Giamatti, the former commissioner of baseball. Dr. Robson was appointed Professor of Psychiatry at the Tufts University and the University of Connecticut Schools of Medicine, and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine. He frequently serves as a psychiatric evaluator for the courts and as a Special Master for the Regional Family Trial Docket.
Elizabeth T. (“Terry”) Sharpe, J.D. is a sole practitioner whose practice has been limited to the representation of children, as a Guardian ad litem or Attorney for Minor Child, in family cases, primarily in Stamford. She has also done similar work in the Stamford and Greenwich Probate Courts. Terry is a graduate of Pace University School of Law (’87), where she was the Research and Writing Editor of the Law Review. Before, during and after graduating from law school, she was a special educator in the Greenwich Public School System. She is also a mediator and a parent coordinator in family cases.
Trinita Family Retreat Center in New Hartford and her church. She began her adult career as a teacher of English and Spanish in Houston, Texas. Nancy and her husband Tim reside in Barkhamsted.
Louise T. Truax, J.D. is a partner at Lax and Truax in Fairfield, CT. She was admitted to the bar, 1993, Connecticut. Education: University of Vermont (B.A., 1984); Sacred Heart University (A.A., 1986); Pace University (J.D., cum laude, 1993). Member: American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, named to Best Lawyers in America, 2008 – present; Editor in Chief, Connecticut Family Lawyer, 2006 - present; Board of Editors, Connecticut Family Lawyer, 1994 – present, Fairfield County Bar Association, Connecticut Bar Association (Member, Executive Committee, Family Law Section, 1995 – present, Chair 2007-2008, Chair Elect, 2006, CLE Chair 2005, Secretary, 2004, Treasurer, 2003,) and American Bar Association (Member, Family Law Section). Author: “Superior Court Highlights,”“Deposition Strategies,” : “Law of the Fifty States,” Special Master, Stamford, Bridgeport Superior Courts, and Regional Family Trial Docket.
Robert D. Zaslow, J.D. has been at attorney in Connecticut since 1994, primarily working in the Family Courts representing both parents and children. He began his legal career working for two years for Legal Aid in Lima, Ohio. Returning to Connecticut he clerked for the judges of the Hartford Superior Court (Criminal, Family, and Civil divisions), and has since been in private practice. In addition to Family Law matters, Attorney Zaslow’s practice also includes real estate matters, probate matters, child protection issues, and some civil litigation concerns. In addition to his practice, Attorney Zaslow is an Executive Committee Member of the Family Law Section of the Connecticut Bar Association, presently serving as its CLE Chair. He is also a member of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (ACC.), a board member of the Hartford County Bar Foundation, and a member of the Collaborative Divorce Lawyers Association. Having worked for Legal Aid and clerked for the judges of the Superior Court, Attorney Zaslow values the need to give back to the court system, and is a Special Master for the Family Division of the Hartford Superior Court, the New Britain Superior Court, as well as for the Regional Family Trial Docket in Middletown and the Early Intervention Program (EIP) in Hartford. Robert D. Zaslow earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Connecticut at Storrs, and his juris doctorate from the Claude W. Pettit School of Law at Ohio Northern University. Attorney Zaslow is a principal in the firm of Zaslow & Sandler, LLC and the Vice Chair of the Family Law Section of the Connecticut Bar Association.
