CTLOBBYIST.ORG - Key Persons
Armando P. Paolino, III has extensive experience at the Connecticut state capitol and brings a wealth of knowledge and bipartisan contacts to his select clients. Mr. Paolino has been active in state and local political campaigns and has lobbied on behalf of private companies, organizations, and non-profit clients for three decades.
Mr. Paolino has served in many capacities as a lobbyist and political advisor. He has developed a special expertise in representing business interests. He has a great deal of experience and knowledge in presenting the business perspective to elected decision makers and has successfully represented and advised businesses and organizations both large and small on political resource management.
He has worked in a wide array of issue areas in Connecticut's legislative and administrative arena, such as: manufacturing, taxation, business and job incentives, asbestos, Alzheimer's disease, aquaculture, bonding, brownfields, insurance, water resources, electric power, pesticide regulation, chemical industry, banking, electronics recycling, occupational & professional licensing, labor costs, health care, hospitals, telecommunications, nursing homes, golf, farmland preservation, housing, arboriculture, tobacco, sewage treatment, pharmaceuticals, liquor control, higher education, contract procurement, job-training, motor vehicles, technology, lodging and tourism, and business relocations to Connecticut, to name a few.
Mr. Paolino speaks regularly before groups and organizations on legislative issues and politics. He is a regular participant on behalf of clients in many issue coalitions. He has been quoted in local and national newspapers and radio including the Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio.
Mr. Paolino has served on the White House Conference on Small Business Advisory Board. He has been an advisor to the Connecticut Delegation to the 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2004 Congressional Small Business Summits. He serves on the Economic Development Commission in his home town Middlebury, CT, serves on the boards of directors of Wellmore Behavioral Health and Jane Doe No More, is a former board member and current Connecticut Corporator of the Big E.
Mr. Paolino received his BA from Trinity College.
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Founding Member of the Connecticut Law Foundation
Jay Levin left the State's Attorney's office in 1980 and joined the firm of Dupont & Tobin, LLC. Handling a wide range of matters in the general practice of law from business formation to wills and probate, he focused on matters of concern to working families from workers compensation to civil and criminal litigation. Encouraged by his partners, he entered back into politics as a candidate having previously run campaigns and served for many years as a State Representative from New London. Levin also served as Mayor of New London in 1984-85.
Although he worked on matters focused on citizens' issues in Southeastern CT, some of his proudest moments were being able to lay the groundwork for successful and ongoing development of New London's downtown waterfront, lobbying on behalf of residents living with disabilities for automatic doors at shopping malls, and advocating for the law that increased the time to file claims for asbestos related disease. He also worked on bills that modernized laws regarding succession of heirs by achieving legislative acceptance of the" Uniform State Rule Against Perpetuities" and enabling litigators to assign specific claims of money damages to their injured clients' cases.
As Chair of the Program, Review and Investigations Committee of the General Assembly (in addition to service on the Finance, Review & Bonding, Judiciary and Transportation Committees) Levin was able to work with legislators of both parties and the O'Neill Administration to construct a management system for the State's criminal justice system that is still in place 29 years later. In addition, the committee tackled binding arbitration for teachers and many other matters of significant areas of government reform. Levin was Chair of the State Law Revision Committee for ten years.
After narrowly losing the nomination for Attorney General to Richard Blumenthal, Levin founded a government relations practice in his New London law firm (then Tobin, Levin, Carberry & O'Malley and now TCORS). He then took that practice to Pullman & Comley, LLC in Bridgeport and in 1999 formed Levin, Powers & Brennan, LLC in Hartford.
Mr. Levin is the Founding Member of the Connecticut Law Foundation, and a member of the American, Connecticut, and New London County Bar Associations. He was a Corporator for Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, and a member of the hospital's Capital Campaign Committee.
Jay Levin has once more returned his government relations practice to New London at the offices of Suisman Shapiro Attorneys-at-Law where he serves as Of Counsel. Also returning with him are the principal clients of his lobbying practice today.
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Legal Counsel for Governor Dannel P. Malloy
Michael A. Christ has served in numerous capacities within government, including 14 years as a legislative leader in the Connecticut General Assembly, with four of those years as a Deputy Majority Leader. He has further experience as Legal Counsel to the Connecticut Speaker of the House. He also directed the legislative efforts of the Connecticut Office of the Governor under Dannel P. Malloy.
Further, Mike served as Vice President of Government Affairs for UnitedHealth Group for the New England region. In this position, Mike assisted in the development of legislative and administrative strategies and coordinated corporate responses to pressing government issues. He witnessed firsthand the development in the ever-evolving world of health care, with the complexities of the Affordable Care Act, and the struggle of the working class to make health care more affordable.
While serving as Legal Counsel for Governor Dannel P. Malloy, Mike was a key leader responsible for developing and marshalling legislative proposals to the General Assembly. He was instrumental in one of the Governor's signature achievements in bringing Jackson Laboratories Genomic Medicine Institute to Connecticut. Additionally, Mike worked to negotiate the Governor's bi-partisan Jobs & Economic Development legislation, among many other legislative priorities. He served as an effective liaison between the Governor and legislative leaders, coordinated annual budget proposals, and shepherded the Governor's appointed State Agency Commissioners through approval processes. In this role, Mike also provided legal analysis on all legislative proposals filed by the Connecticut State Legislature.
As a principal in Levin, Paolino & Christ, he utilizes his training and experience to service a portfolio of various clients ranging from construction to the maritime industry to complicated tax and business operation issues. He has conscientiously worked to further the goals of and solve problems for his clients.
Mike served in the U.S. Air National Guard in Massachusetts from 1980 to 1984. He then completed a Bachelor of Arts at Central Connecticut State University, and later received a Juris Doctor from Western New England School of Law. He was admitted to the bar in Connecticut in 2002 and is a member of the Connecticut Bar Association.
Mike is very active in his local community, previously serving on the Board of Education, the Zoning Board of Appeals, and in democratic politics. Additionally, he serves on the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence and volunteers for the State of Connecticut Department of Rehabilitation Services - Services for the Blind, and Habitat for Humanity.
Levin, Paolino & Christ brings its considerable expertise, relationships, and knowledge to its federal, state, and local lobbying engagements