Peter Zarella
From Judgepedia
Peter T. Zarella is an associate justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, a position to which he was nominated by Governor John G. Rowland on January 4th, 2001. He was sworn in on January 22, 2001.
Notable opinions
Zarella dissented from the 4-3 majority in Kerrigan & Mock v. Connecticut Dept. of Public Health, the October 10, 2008 decision that legalized same-sex marriage in Connecticut.[1],[2]
Background
Zarella received his Bachelor of Science degree from Northeastern University in 1972 and his Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School in 1975. He was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1975, the Connecticut Bar in 1977, the U.S. District Courts in Massachusetts (1976) and Connecticut (1977), the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit (1985), the U.S. Supreme Court (1985) and the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (1990). He was in the private practice of law from 1977-96 and was a partner in the Hartford firm of Brown, Paindiris & Zarella from 1978 until his appointment as a Superior Court Judge in 1996.[3]
In December 1999 he was elevated to Judge of the Appellate Court.
Community service
Prior to his service on the bench, Justice Zarella served as a commissioner of the Metropolitan District Commission. His professional affiliations included his service on the Connecticut Bar Executive Committee of the Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Section, 1985-90; the CBA's Banking Law Committee, 1990-94; a member of the Town of West Hartford Ethics Commission (1992-95) and Charter Revision Commission (1995-96).
He previously served as the Chairman of the Criminal Justice Commission. He is the Chairman of the Rules Committee charged with proposing revisions to the Superior Court rules for submission to the judges of the Superior Court for their approval.[4]
