Attorney John P. Clifford, Jr.
After a distinguished legal career spanning more than four decades, Attorney John P. Clifford, Jr. will end his formal association with Rome Clifford Katz & Koerner, LLP, a firm he originally founded in 2006.
Although Attorney Clifford will be reducing his workload, he will maintain workspace at the 214 Main St. Hartford law offices and will remain available to consult with and advise clients as needed.
“I had a very good run and enjoyed helping clients through difficult matters,” said Attorney Clifford, whose forte was Litigation and trial work.
Over the course of his career, Attorney Clifford handled Litigation in the areas of Personal Injury, Professional Malpractice, Commercial Real Estate, Family Law, Securities Litigation, and claims of sexual abuse.
Attorney Clifford has tried a dozen jury cases in federal courts, and far more in the state courts of Connecticut.
“John Clifford is one of the finest Litigation and trial attorneys in Connecticut,” said Partner Alan Rome. “He compiled a long list of great accomplishments during his career and had the distinction of being highly respected by his clients, peers, and judges.”
Attorney Clifford recalled one of his first trials in which he represented a landowner plaintiff in an architectural/engineering malpractice claim, which stretched over most of one summer in Litchfield Superior Court. Multiple experts from both sides of the case testified to the standard of care for architects and engineers in connection with the need for proper approvals required for a large commercial property in Winsted.
“Despite spending most of my summer in the courtroom, we secured a very favorable damage award for our client,” according to Attorney Clifford, who has logged many seven figure recoveries.
Attorney Clifford grew up in Woodbridge, Conn., and attended the private Hopkins School in New Haven. He matriculated at Trinity College in Hartford, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in 1976.
In the year following graduation, he secured his Connecticut real estate license, worked for a real estate brokerage firm, and began graduate courses.
In 1977, he enrolled in the University of Miami School of Law, from which he earned his Juris Doctorate (JD) degree in 1980.
Motivated by a college romance, Attorney Clifford returned to Connecticut to be closer to his now wife, Aelish, and finished his legal studies at the University of Connecticut School of Law on an exchange program.
During that year, he clerked for the Hartford firm Gersten & Gersten, founded in 1946 by the father and uncles of a fellow University of Miami law student, Eliot Gersten.
Attorney Clifford went on to become an Associate at the Gersten & Gersten firm, where he worked for five years before he and Eliot Gersten left to form their own law firm. The Gersten & Clifford law firm was established in 1986.
Another Gersten & Gersten Associate, Allan Koerner, now a Business Law and Real Estate Partner at RCKK Law, joined as a Partner in the new firm.
“We built a firm with a reputation for litigation and trials in state and federal courts,” Attorney Clifford recalled. “We covered most of the major bases.”
Gersten & Clifford and the firm Rome & Katz merged in 2006 to form the firm now known as Rome Clifford Katz & Koerner, LLP.
Attorney Clifford has been a member of the Connecticut Bar since 1980, the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut since 1981, and the Florida Bar since 1981.
He and his wife of 40 years have lived in Avon for 37 years. Attorney Clifford looks forward to spending more time with his three grown children, their spouses, and six grandchildren. He also hopes to spend more time working on his golf game, the decline of which he blames on his time-consuming occupation.
Attorney Clifford may be reached by phone at (860) 558-9008, or inquiries may be emailed to jclifford@rckklaw.com or Johncliffordjr54@gmail.com.