Livia DeFilippis Barndollar receives Edward F. Hennessey Professionalism Award from Connecticut Bar Association
HARTFORD, CT March 7, 2025 — Pullman & Comley, LLC is pleased to announce that Livia DeFilippis Barndollar, a member of the firm in the Family Law Practice, has received the Edward F. Hennessey Professionalism Award from the Connecticut Bar Association (CBA).
The Edward F. Hennessey Professionalism Award honors a member of the Connecticut bar who dedicated their career to the highest standards of the legal profession and inspired others to do the same. Livia will be honored at the CBA’s annual Celebrate with the Stars event on April 9 at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville.
The criteria for the award states that the recipient must be a lawyer who has demonstrated such integrity, character, competence, ethics, civility, and mentoring over the course of his or her career as to inspire greater professionalism among lawyers and pride in their profession and who has enhanced the public’s perception of the legal profession.
“Livia’s entire legal career embodies the spirit of this award,” says Lee D. Hoffman, chair of Pullman & Comley. “She has demonstrated a profound commitment to the legal profession and public service through the decades. I am proud to call her my partner.”
Livia has more than 40 years of experience in family law and is a past president of the CBA and past chair of its Family Law Section. She has been a member of the Executive Committee of the CBA Family Law Section since 1996 and has served as every officer of the Section. Livia is a Sustaining Life Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation, served the maximum nine years on its Board, and has served as the chair of its Nominating Committee and Fellows Nomination Committee. She served for a number of years on the Standing Committee on Professional Ethics of the CBA and launched the Fair and Impartial Judiciary Committee during her terms as CBA President.
Some of Livia’s national bar association activities include serving for 13 years as a state bar association delegate to the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association (ABA), as past president of the American Counsel Association, where she continues to serve on its board of directors and as chair of its Scholarship Committee. Livia has also been a member of the ABA’s Family Law Section Council and served as its parliamentarian. She is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
In addition to writing the chapter on alimony for the Lexis Nexis Connecticut Divorce Handbook, Livia takes an active role in several family law publications. She has been an editor of the Connecticut Bar Journal since 1985, was its editor in chief from 1994-97, and has served as the senior topical editor for family law since 2000. Livia also serves as an editor at large of the Family Advocate, published by the ABA’s Family Law Section and has frequently presented at educational programs at both state and national levels.
Livia was appointed by the then ABA President to the Advisory Committee to the ABA Commission on Youth at Risk, an organization committed to the improvement of child welfare laws and programs on a national level. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Connecticut Legal Services and the Norwalk Community College Foundation, serving as the Foundation’s Scholarship Committee chair. Livia was a founding member of SoundWaters, Inc.
About Pullman & Comley
Pullman & Comley is one of Connecticut’s largest law firms and, for more than 100 years, has provided a wide range of legal services to clients in the New England region, as well as throughout the United States and internationally. Pullman & Comley’s major practice areas include business organizations and finance; public finance; health care; labor, employment law and employee benefits; litigation; property tax and valuation; real estate, energy, environmental and land use; and trusts and estates. The firm has offices in Bridgeport, Hartford and Westport, Connecticut; White Plains, New York; Springfield, Massachusetts; and Wakefield, Rhode Island. The firm is an active member of the Law Firm Alliance, an international affiliation of law firms. For more information, please visit www.pullcom.com.