ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Terrence M. Connors has been selected to receive the 2023 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Second Circuit. Connors is a partner at Connors LLP in Buffalo, New York. Chief Judge Debra Ann Livingston of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit will present the award to Connors at a later date.
“For more than 40 years, Terry has—by word and example—taught and shown young lawyers what it takes to be a great lawyer,” writes U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, a former partner of Connors’ who nominated him for the award. “He has built one of the finest boutique litigation practices in the state if not the country, and, in the process, he has molded a generation or more of lawyers who know what it takes to win and who work very hard every day to do just that for their clients.”
Connors began his legal career as a litigation associate at Damon & Morey, eventually becoming chair of the 55-lawyer firm. In 1986, he and Vilardo founded the litigation boutique Connors & Vilardo LLP. When Vilardo became a judge, the firm became Connors LLP and now employs 17 attorneys and 10 paralegals. Connors specializes in trial and appellate practice in civil and criminal litigation. A frequent author and lecturer on trial practice, he has taught trial technique for the University of Buffalo School of Law and for the New York State Bar Association Trial Academy at Cornell Law School.
Connors is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, the American Bar Foundation, and the New York Bar Foundation. Super Lawyers® Upstate New York ranked him number one for eight years running. In 2022 and 2023, he was named as one of the most influential lawyers in New York by City & State Law Power 50. In 2020, he received the Hon. Thurgood S. Marshall Award as the Outstanding Practitioner in the state from the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Connors earned his undergraduate degree at Canisius College and his law degree from the University of Buffalo School of Law. He received the University’s Edwin F. Jaeckle Award, which is the highest honor the School of Law can bestow. The jury selection room in the law school courtroom has been named after him.
The American Inns of Court, in Alexandria, Virginia, inspires the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring. The organization’s membership includes nearly 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in more than 360 chapters nationwide. More information is available at www.innsofcourt.org.
