Antonio Ponvert III - Lawyer in Bridgeport, CT

Antonio Ponvert III focuses on civil rights,constitutional law, prisoner rights, police misconduct, productliability, wrongful death, catastrophic personal injury, and othercomplex individual and class action cases in Federal and State courts inConnecticut and across the nation. He has represented plaintiffs inhundreds of high profile lawsuits, and has argued more than 40 appealsin State Appellate and Federal Circuit Courts.Since joiningKoskoff Koskoff Bieder in 1999, he has achieved record-breakingverdicts and settlements on behalf of inmates and victims of policeabuse, including the largest amount ever paid in Connecticut ($3.2million) for the death of an unmarried man without heirs, $1 million forthe asphyxiation death of a paranoid schizophrenic prisoner, $1.6million for a man shot to death by a New Milford police detective, $1million for the suicide of a mentally ill young man, and a $250,000verdict against a Department of Correction captain for punching aprisoner in the face one time. In 2013, Ponvert earned more than $50 Million dollars in verdicts for his clients, including a $41.5 Million verdict (the second largest in Connecticut history) for a young woman who contracted encephalitis on an overseas school trip, and $9.3 Million for a victim of a hospital overdose. Among Attorney Ponvert's currentcases, he represents the surviving family of a young man shot to deathby a Bridgeport police officer, a mentally disabled young man who wassexually assaulted by a teacher at a residential facility, and a police officer who suffered permanent injuries in a near fatal car wreck. For more than a decade, he represented the Guardians Black PoliceOfficers Association against the Bridgeport Police Department in one ofthe longest-running employment discrimination cases in the Nation.Inrecent years, Atty. Ponvert obtained a $2.5 million settlement in along-running lawsuit brought by 18 female employees of the ConnecticutDepartment of Correction alleging hostile work environment, sexualharassment, and discrimination. He also represented the families of anumber of mentally ill men who died while in the custody of theConnecticut Department of Correction and the Department of Mental Healthand Addiction Services. And, he represented the victim of a sexualassault in a suit against a national property management company fornegligent security. In 2010 he achieved a record-breaking settlement ($5million) against the maker of Skoal and Copenhagen chewing tobacco onbehalf of the surviving wife of a victim of tongue cancer.In2005, Attorney Ponvert represented the father of Michael Ross, the firstman executed in the State of Connecticut in 45 years. In two separatecases, spanning a period of five months, Attorney Ponvert sued the Stateto prevent the execution, and he brought and defended appeals in theCircuit Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.Attorney Ponvert is onstaff at Gerry Spence's Trial Lawyers College in Dubois, Wyoming. He hasalso lectured and written on constitutional law, civil rights, prisonerrights, and class actions.Areas of PracticeCivil Rights Class Actions Premises Liability Product LiabilityBar AdmissionsPennsylvania, 1990California, 1992Connecticut, 1997U.S. District Court Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1991U.S. District Court Northern District of California, 1991U.S. District Court Southern District of California, 1993U.S. District Court District of Connecticut, 1997U.S. Court of Appeals 2nd Circuit, 1997U.S. Court of Appeals 6th Circuit, 2000U.S. Court of Appeals 11th Circuit, 2000U.S. Court of Appeals 4th Circuit, 2001U.S. Court of Appeals 1st Circuit, 2001U.S. Court of Appeals 10th Circuit, 2001U.S. Court of Appeals 3rd Circuit, 2001U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit, 1993U.S. Supreme Court, 2002Honors and AwardsOrder of the Coif Martindale-Hubbell Rates AVProfessional Associations and MembershipsAmerican Civil Liberties Union, Cooperating Attorney Connecticut Civil Liberties Union, Cooperating AttorneyPast Employment PositionsTrial Lawyers College, Dubois, Wyoming, Staff, 2008 — Present Judge Edmund V. Ludwig, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Law Clerk, 1990 — 1991