KEVIN O’CONNOR-who made a strong bid for the U.S. Congress in 1998-currently serves as a trial lawyer for Day, Berry and Howard, LLP, in Hartford, Conn. His areas of expertise include securities and banking enforcement as well as complex litigation, including the defense of securities, insurance and market conduct class actions. He also serves as a corporate counsel and chief legal officer for his hometown town of West Hartford.

As a 1998 U.S. Congress candidate from Connecticut’s first district, O’Connor was endorsed by the Hartford Courant and received that district’s highest vote percentage for a republican candidate in 30 years.

An all-conference lacrosse player at Hall High School, O’Connor went on to be a 1989 team captain and a first team all-Midwest defenseman as a senior at Notre Dame, where he also was president of Cavanaugh Hall. A two-year starter with the Irish while playing three seasons under Rich O’Leary and one for current head coach Kevin Corrigan, O’Connor appeared in 41 career games-including 37 of 38 during his final three seasons-and graduated with honors in 1989, as a government major.

O’Connor went on to graduate in 1992 with high honors and fifth in his class from the University of Connecticut School of Law in Hartford, Conn. He served as notes and comments editor of the Law Review in 1991-92 and served as president of the student bar association. He was presented with the Wickersham Award, recognizing excellence in the study of constitutional law, and the Foundation Prize, which awards outstanding service to the law school.

Prior to joining Day, Berry and Howard, O’Connor spent 1998-99 as an instructor in lawyering process at the University of Connecticut School of Law. He was a litigation associate from 1997-99 with LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, LLP, and served from 1995-97 as a staff attorney and then a senior counsel with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement, in Washington, D.C. He was an adjunct professor of law at George Washington University in 1996-97 and a litigation associate with New York-based Cahill, Gordon & Reindel from ’93-`95 (after serving as a summer associate there in ’91). He also clerked from ’92-`93 with The Honorable William H. Timbers in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

O’Connor has served as a co-author for several articles in regional law and business publications and currently serves as a political analyst for his local CBS affiliate, WFSB. He is a board member of several organizations in the Hartford area, including the Foundation for Advancement of Catholic Schools, the Rogers African American Cultural Center and Riverfront Recapture. O’Connor and his wife Kathleen are the parents of a baby girl, Erin.