Law Offices of Steven G. Mednick
Counsel to Public and Private Institutions
When decisions count...
count on experience
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Mr. Mednick concentrates his law practice in governmental-related transactions (economic development, school construction, land use and zoning); municipal governance (charter revision and structural reform); commercial financial transactions (including real estate), technology procurement representation for the public and private sector; and, appellate litigation. Mr. Mednick occasionally represents clients on government service matters.
He is admitted to practice in the State of Connecticut and before the United States District Court of Connecticut, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court. He is a graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law (J.D. - 1979) and Fairfield University (B.A. - 1974). He was also a participating columnist for the "Sum & Substance" series for the Connecticut Law Tribune from 1996-1998.
Mednick has handled numerous labor arbitrations and appellate litigation. For example, his argument for the repeal of so-called “recall” provisions was affirmed by the Connecticut Supreme Court in Simons v. Canty, 195 Conn. 524 (1985). More recently Attorney Mednick successfully reversed an adverse labor arbitration ruling at the appellate court, on the basis of arbitral misconduct, New Haven v. Local 884, Council 4, AFSCME, AFL-CIO, 38 Conn. App. 709 (1995) which ruling was reversed by the Supreme Court, 237 Conn. 378 (1996). The appellate court in 1997, again, found for his client on the basis of alternative arguments advanced in the original appellate case, 44 Conn. App. 764 (1997) and the case is currently pending at the Supreme Court.
Since graduating from Fairfield University with a Bachelor of Arts in Politics (1974) and a Juris Doctor from the University of Connecticut (1978), Attorney Steven G. Mednick has been deeply involved in a wide range of government decisions and legal actions. Immediately prior to forming his firm Mednick was a partner in the New Haven office of a 70 member Connecticut-based law firm (May of 1996 through December of 2000); served from 1994-1996 as Corporation Counsel for the City of New Haven; and, during the same time-frame was a Senior Advisor at Strategic Policy, Inc. in Washington, D.C. where he represented a national client in government affairs matters in 12 states. Attorney Mednick is currently in his third year as President of the IJIS Institute in Washington D.C.
As Corporation Counsel, Mr. Mednick supervised a staff of 13 lawyers and investigators. During his first year, the department included the Division of Labor Relations and Workers' Compensation. Mr. Mednick was part of the team that orchestrated the successful coalition bargaining effort that reopened and settled collective bargaining contracts with almost 70 percent of the bargaining units. In addition to wage concessions, the City devised a strategy to reduce 14 disparate health plans into a single managed care program and created a workers' compensation managed care plan.
Mr. Mednick was involved in two important appellate cases in 1995 and 1996. In the first case, City of New Haven v. Local 884, 38 Conn. App. 709 (1995), Mr. Mednick persuaded the Appellate Court to reverse and direct a verdict for the City in a case involving "arbitrator misconduct." The case was, ultimately, reversed by the State Supreme Court (and, again, the Appellate Court found for the City on alternate grounds, currently on appeal before the State Supreme Court). In the second case, Board of Education of the City of New Haven v. City of New Haven, 237 Conn. 169 (1996), the City established the primacy of a city charter as the operative governing document establishing the parameters of capital spending for Boards of Education.
He also played a major role in developing the securitized sale of tax liens pursuant to C.G.S. §12-194h. The transaction, the first of its kind in Connecticut, resulted in the sale of over 3,000 liens and provided $18 million to a public school construction fund. In addition, Mr. Mednick was the lead city counsel in the two phases of the sale of the Park Plaza Hotel to an affiliate of the Cordish Company of Baltimore, Maryland: the purchase out of bankruptcy and the negotiation of a development agreement. Finally, Mr. Mednick was counsel for the City in the purchase of the Shubert Theater construction mortgage and the subsequent alteration of legal relationships, which will provide a direct annual subsidy of approximately $500,000 to the theater.
In December of 1996 he settled eight years of litigation resulting in the acquisition of the former Malley's Department Store. His efforts were acknowledged by Community Mediation, Inc, with the presentation of the Zampano Award for Excellence in Mediation in June of 1997.