Judiciary Committee Hearing Roiled by Revelation of Lamont Nominee to Superior Court Admitted to Practice in CT Last Week.

A remarkable day at the Judiciary Committee. Governor Ned Lamont’s nomination of Alina Marquez-Reynolds, of Fairfield, ran into trouble after the committee learned that Marquez-Reynolds was admitted to practice law in Connecticut on Friday. That’s Friday, April 22nd, three days before the hearing and nine days after Lamont nominated the former assistant United States attorney to the Superior Court.

Marquez-Reynolds has served as general counsel to Grace Farms Foundation, a Connecticut-based non-profit organization, from 2019. She did not, however, become an Authorized House Counsel until 2021. Told of an opportunity to ascend to the Superior Court, Marquez-Reynolds applied to the Judicial Selection Commission and was given unusually quick consideration. The Commission appears not to have inquired if Marquez-Reynolds was admitted to practice law in Connecticut, a prerequisite, one would think, to consideration and approval.

Lamont and his staff appear to have been unusually incurious about the details of Marquez-Reynolds’s status as a lawyer admitted to practice law in Connecticut. The nomination of a lawyer who was not admitted to practice in Connecticut when the governor nominated her to the bench reflects the low regard in which Lamont holds lawyers, judges, and our courts.

The committee adjourned Monday without voting on the nomination. The legislature’s regular session ends at midnight on Wednesday, May 4th.

Published April 25, 2022.