News & Events

Firm shareholder Richard S. Order was recently elected Treasurer of the Mandell Greater Hartford Jewish Community Center in West Hartford. He has been a member of its Board of Directors since 2015 and is currently the Chairman of the Finance Committee and a member of the Executive and Nominating Committees. For several years, Richard has also been a Co-Chair of the Center’s Hartford Jewish Film Festival, which shows films from Israel or containing Jewish themes every March at various venues in t ...

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW UPDATE:
TRANSFER ACT REVISIONS
EFFECTIVE OCTOBER 1, 2019
By:  Mark J. Zimmermann, Esq.

            On June 28, 2019 Governor Lamont signed a bill entitled “An Act Concerning the Audit Period for the Transfer of Hazardous Waste Establishments”.  The bill makes numerous amendments to the Transfer Act that will be effective on October 1, 2019. These amendments serve to ease some of the present burdens imposed upon certain establishments involved with the transfer of contaminated properties under Connecticut’s Transfer Act...

Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, P.C. is pleased to announce the addition of two well-known Connecticut attorneys to its ranks.   James R. Byrne is a principal in the firm’s litigation department. Attorney Byrne graduated from Boston University with a degree in Psychology and from UConn School of Law.  He is admitted to practice in Connecticut, Massachusetts and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Court.  Attorney Byrne is a commercial litigator with 25 years of experience representing financial instit ...

UKS Hartford principal and Avon resident Thomas A. Gugliotti has recently found a new (for him!) charitable organization to join – and one that fits Tom’s Italian-American heritage and local involvement! The Avon Chapter of UNICO International is part of the nearly 100 year old Italian heritage organization, whose moto is “service above self”. UNICO International is the largest Italian American service organization in America, founded in 1922 in Waterbury Connecticut, and which now has chapters ...

The Supreme Court in Knick v. Township of Scott Pennsylvania, No. 17-647, U.S. (2019) rectifies over 30 years of adverse outcomes in overturning Williamson Cty. Reg’l Planning Comm’n v. Hamilton Bank, 473 U.S. 172 (1985). In doing so, it stands on the shoulders of a case in which Updike Kelly & Spellacy represented the plaintiff in 2016, Arrigoni Enterprises, LLC  v. Durham, 578 U.S.(2016)  (Thomas, J., joined by Kennedy, J., dissenting from denial of certiorari)...

In June, Donald Doeg was appointed to a two year term as Chair of the Construction Law Section of the Connecticut Bar Association.

On May 31st, Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, P.C. attorneys, summer associates, and interns visited Wilbur Cross High School as part of the firm’s pledge to the Connecticut Bar Association diversity and inclusion committee and pipeline initiative. The project ultimately aims to enhance diversity within the legal community in the State of Connecticut. Specifically, the pipeline initiative targets the lack of diversity in legal education, and serves to inform high school students of their options in ...

UKS Creditor’s Rights Practice Group Chair, Thomas A. Gugliotti, was recently awarded the 2019 Service to the Profession Award by the Commercial Law & Bankruptcy Section of the Connecticut Bar Association. This follows the Career Achievement Award given to Attorney Gugliotti by the Section in 2017.  Attorney Gugliotti is a long-time member of the Commercial Law & Bankruptcy Section where he currently serves as a member of its Executive Committee, and was previously elected as the Chair of that Section.

On May 3, 2019, UKS Principal and Chair of the Firm’s Creditor’s Rights Practice Group, Thomas A. Gugliotti joined with U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Tancredi and two others in a round-table discussion on mediation at the 2019 American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation & Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Divisions conference, held at the New York Marriott Marquis. Attorney Gugliotti, who is a long-time panel member in the Hartford Bankruptcy Court’s Voluntary Mediation Program, and frequently serves as court appointed and extra-judicial mediator in a variety of cases, with an emphasis on bankruptcy proceedings. Attorney Gugliotti was part of the committee which originally authored Chambers Order No. 1 in 1996, which established the Voluntary Mediation Program in the Hartford Court, as well as having worked with Judge Tancredi and others to revise and update that Order in 2017.

On Friday August 2, 2019, Christopher Brigham will be a featured speaker at a seminar hosted by the National Business Institute in Farmington entitled Employment Law: Advanced Issues and Answers. Attorney Brigham will discuss “Conducting an Effective Internal Investigation” and “National Labor Relations Board Decisions Affecting Unionized and Non-Unionized Workplaces”. To register and learn additional information, visit here .