Antonio Ponvert III

Antonio Ponvert III focuses on civil rights, constitutional law, prisoner rights, police misconduct, Title VII, product liability, catastrophic personal injury and other complex individual and class action cases in Federal and State courts in Connecticut and across the nation.

He has represented plaintiffs in many high profile lawsuits, and has argued more than 40 appeals in State Appellate and Federal Circuit Courts, in cases concerning, among other things, the right of smoking-injured Medicaid recipients to receive public aid, the right of prisoners to receive organ transplants and psychiatric care, and the right of injured persons to receive compensation from negligent physicians and manufacturers of defective products.

Since joining KK&B in 1999, he has achieved record-breaking verdicts and settlements on behalf of inmates, including the largest amount ever paid in Connecticut ($3.2 million) for the death of an unmarried man without heirs, $1 million for the asphyxiation death of a paranoid schizophrenic prisoner, $1 million for the suicide of a mentally ill young man, and a $250,000 verdict against a Department of Correction captain for punching his client in the face one time.

Among Atty. Ponvert’s current cases, he represents the surviving family of a young man killed by mouth cancer from the use of chewing tobacco. He represents the surviving family of a young man shot to death by a Bridgeport police officer, as well as several other victims of police excessive force. He also represents the Guardians Black Police Officers Association against the Bridgeport Police Department in one of the longest-running employment discrimination cases in the Nation.

In one of his most recent cases, Atty. Ponvert obtained a $2.5 million settlement in a long-running lawsuit brought by 18 female employees of the Connecticut Department of Correction alleging hostile work environment, sexual harassment, and discrimination. He also represented the families of a number of mentally ill men who died while in the custody of the Connecticut Department of Correction and the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. And, he represented the victim of a sexual assault in a suit against a national property management company for negligent security.

Atty. Ponvert successfully concluded a case against the New Milford Police Department for the fatal shooting of a young black man in 1998. In 2005, Atty. Ponvert represented the father of Michael Ross, the first man executed in the State of Connecticut in 45 years. In two separate cases, spanning a period of five months, Atty. Ponvert sued the State to prevent the execution, and he brought and defended appeals in the Circuit Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Atty. Ponvert has authored several United States Supreme Court and Connecticut Supreme Court amicus briefs, including a brief in the case that overturned the Dram Shop damages cap in Connecticut, and a brief successfully arguing that the Court should not require gate keeping evidentiary hearings, except in those rare cases where the matter involves novel, innovative, or obscure scientific expert testimony. He has also lectured and written extensively on constitutional law, civil rights, prisoner rights, and class actions.

Curriculum Vitae

Bar Admission

• 1990, Pennsylvania
• 1991, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• 1991, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
• 1992, California
• 1993, U.S. District Court, Southern District of California
• 1993, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
• 1997, Connecticut
• 1997, U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut
• 1997, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
• 2000, U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
• 2000, U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
• 2001, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit
• 2001, U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit
• 2001, U.S. Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit
• 2001, U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
• 2002, U.S. Supreme Court

Memberships

• Order of the Coif
• Member, Civil Pro Bono Panel, United States District Court
• Cooperating Attorney, American Civil Liberties Union
• Cooperating Attorney, Connecticut Civil Liberties Union

Other

• Law Clerk, Judge Edmund V. Ludwig, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1990-1991
• Staff, Trial Lawyers College, Dubois, Wyoming, 2008 - Present
• Martindale-Hubbell rates AV