Judge Joseph P. Flynn

Hon. Joseph P. Flynn

Chief Judge Joseph P. Flynn
Chief Judge Joseph P. Flynn was born in Derby, son of the late Charles H. and Eileen Hennessy Flynn. He graduated from Notre Dame High School in West Haven. After earning degrees from Fairfield and Georgetown, he was admitted to practice before the Connecticut State and Federal Courts in 1965, and in 1966 before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

While a student at Georgetown, he was a staff member for United States Senator Thomas J. Dodd in Washington and Hartford. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and the U.S. Naval Reserve, Judge Advocate General's Corps, to the rank of Lt. Commander, and was honorably discharged from both.

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From 1967 until 1971, Judge Flynn served as Corporation Counsel for the Town of Seymour. As a staff attorney for the Connecticut Legislative Council of the Connecticut General Assembly, he was author of the procedural provisions of No. 695 of the 1969 Public Acts, which first regulated use of Connecticut's coastal wetlands. He served as legal counsel to several other legislative committees and, in 1969, became counsel to the Senate Majority Leader. In 1973, he became counsel to the Senate Minority Leader. As such, he was trial and appellate counsel for the plaintiffs in Caldwell v. Meskill, 164 Conn. 300 (1973), which overturned a gubernatorial veto. Judge Flynn served as a State Senator from the 17th District from 1975-79. Ten years before the federal adoption of COBRA, as co-chair of the Insurance Committee, he cosponsored the law which permitted Connecticut employees and their spouses and children to continue group health coverage after termination of employment.

Judge Flynn practiced law in Ansonia for twenty years. He tried cases in the probate, juvenile, superior and federal courts of the state and before federal administrative judges in Connecticut, Massachusetts and federal appellate administrative tribunals in Washington, D.C. He was counsel and principal drafter for the Seymour Charter Commission. During his years of practice, he served as a special public defender in the juvenile court in Waterbury, in the Fifth Circuit Court and in the Court of Common Pleas until the merger of the lower courts.

An arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association, Judge Flynn served as a statutory arbitrator on teacher contract cases in Hartford, Clinton, Norwalk and Newtown. He was trial counsel only for the union defendants in Philbrook v. Ansonia Board of Education, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16556 (D. Conn. May 18, 1984), rev'd, 757 A.2d 476 (2d Cir. 1985), aff'd, 479 U.S. 60, 107 S. Ct. 367, 93 L. Ed. 2d 305, (1986). Judge Flynn also served as a special master for civil jury cases in the Ansonia/Milford Superior Court in 1985. In 1988, he was an instructor in business and environmental law at Fairfield University's graduate school of continuing education.

Governor William A. O'Neill appointed Judge Flynn to the bench in 1985. He sat in all of the Superior courts of Fairfield and New Haven Counties on criminal and civil jury and court cases and served as Assistant Administrative Judge in Waterbury in 1988 and as Assistant Administrative Judge in the Ansonia/Milford District in 1997. Named Administrative Judge in 1998, he served until his appointment as Deputy Chief Court Administrator in 1999. In 2001, Governor Rowland appointed Judge Flynn to the Connecticut Appellate Court and he was sworn in on February 7, 2001 by former Connecticut Supreme Court Chief Justice Francis McDonald. He was appointed Chief Judge by Chief Justice William J. Sullivan on February 1, 2006. Judge Flynn is a former member of the Superior Court Committee on Rules and of the Committee on Admissions to the Bar. He serves as co-chair of the Appellate Rules Committee. He was a member of the Chief Justice's Committee to study the attorney grievance procedures and served for seven years as a member of the Connecticut State Library Board. He is chairman of the Law Library Advisory Committee of the Superior Court. He is a member and past president of the Connecticut Judge's Association, a member and past president of the Lower Naugatuck Valley Bar Association and a member of the Connecticut Bar Association.

Among his awards, Chief Judge Flynn received the 2006-2007 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Brotherhood Award given by the King Brotherhood Award Committee of the City of Ansonia for promotion of better relations between racial and ethnic groups in our society; the 1987 Distinguished Service Award of the Valley Bar Association; the 2006 Outstanding Jurist Award of the Valley Bar Association; the 2006 Citation for Outstanding Service and Continued Leadership from the Connecticut Bar Association Young Lawyers Section. In 2005 he was also honored by the City of Ansonia Historic Commission.

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