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 June 10, 2007
Bar President Plans Community Role
by Daniel Tepfer
Connecticut Post Online
BRIDGEPORT - There's a young face leading one of the nation's oldest bar associations.
Douglas Mahoney, a 39-year-old partner in Tremont & Sheldon P.C., a Bridgeport-based personal injury law firm, was elected president of the 127-year-old Greater Bridgeport Bar Association last week.
Mahoney, who will head the 700-member association through next year, said his election is the apex not only of his involvement with the Bridgeport bar but his firm's as well. "My father, Paul Tremont, was president of the GBBA in the 1980s, and so it is extremely fitting for Douglas Mahoney to follow that tradition and take over the reigns in 2007," said Jason Tremont. "Douglas is a very talented attorney and I have no doubt that he will serve his presidency with distinction and commitment." For the past five years, Mahoney has served as chairman of the bar association's litigation section, acting as a liaison between judges and lawyers at the city's two state courthouses.
Mahoney said the bar and the community of Bridgeport are intertwined. "The bar association has always been active in the city of Bridgeport," he said. "They have raised thousands of dollars for the Cardinal Shehan Center, the Beardsley Zoo." Among the beneficiaries of the association's fund-raising efforts were the four orphaned children of Bashkim Emini, 36, and Lumnije Dermaku, 31, who were slain in their Fairfield Avenue apartment on Jan. 8.
Additionally, the bar association helped organize an interfaith service hosted by Bishop William E. Lori.
As president, Mahoney said, he plans to continue working with the community. "The bar association is always reaching out to the city of Bridgeport and the people who live here, trying to provide services to them," he said. "We want to continue the charity work and serve the greater Bridgeport Community. That is foremost. And we would also like to do what we can to assist judges in whatever needs they have."
Mahoney said there have always been a lot of concern by various judges and staff about the adequacy of some of the court facilities in Bridgeport, and the bar association would like to work with the judges and the legislators to help improve the facilities on Golden Hill Street particularly.
"There is not a lot of industry left in the city of Bridgeport and one of the things that keeps the downtown vital is the courthouse and the lawyers that come to it, the jurors that come to it and the parties that come to it," Mahoney said. "We have to do what we can to make sure that center of activity remains vital and contributes to the growth and development of Bridgeport."
Outgoing bar president Robert Mitchell, of Stratford, said he is impressed with many of Mahoney's original ideas. "Doug will be an enthusiastic and focused bar president and we can count on him to affect a number of programs and initiatives that all the officers have worked on together to move the bar forward," he said.
Mahoney grew up in Ridgefield, attending public schools there. He went to Holy Cross College and the University of Connecticut Law School before passing the bar in 1992. He was recruited by Tremont & Sheldon out of law school.
Founding partner T. Paul Tremont was one of the first lawyers in the state to represent people who claimed they were abused as children by Roman Catholic priests. After Tremont died, his mantel was passed to his son Jason Tremont who, along with Mahoney and Cindy Robinson, went on to win millions of dollars in settlements for more than two dozen abuse victims.
But taking on cases against the Catholic Church presented its own problems for Mahoney, who not only grew up Catholic but worked in the church as a teenager.
"It was perhaps harder for me in the beginning to believe the abuse was happening than someone who isn't Catholic, because it was hard to accept it was going on," he said. "But as I talked to the victim and reviewed the evidence, there could be no doubt it was happening. Unfortunately, there were still an number of people who couldn't be convinced, and this was evidenced by the number of death threats we received as we went along."
Typically, Mahoney represents people injured physically or emotionally because of the negligence of others. He has tried cases involving automobile and motorcycle accidents, as well as assaults, police negligence, construction accidents, and errors by insurance agents. Mahoney is married to Kristin Connors, a lawyer in Hartford. The couple live in Newtown and have two children.
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