OUR SPRING ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT FEATURES BRIAN FESTA, J.D. 2010!
Prior to going to law school, Brian Festa had not considered being an attorney. Mr. Festa had a career in sales and marketing where he says that he was able to incorporate negotiation skills each day. Mr. Festa was also a high school English teacher for 5 years prior to attending Quinnipiac University School of Law and graduating with his JD in 2010. Mr. Festa decided to attend law school in 2006 at the age of 28. Mr. Festa was an evening student during law school as he was also working full time for the State of Connecticut.
While he did not have a particular concentration during his time at Quinnipiac, he did focus on taking many of his classes in wills, trusts and estates. Mr. Festa believed that when he graduated he would likely work in this area full time. Mr. Festa worked as a Sappern Fellow with the Hartford Family Court during his final year at Quinnipiac.
Mr. Festa also received awards for having the highest grades in Advanced Legal Writing & Research and Federal Courts and was approached to be on the Quinnipiac Law Review, but was unable to participate because of his full-time career. In law school, Mr. Festa was unable to take the Alternate Dispute Resolution courses because he was balancing a full-time career. However, Mr. Festa always loved negotiation and was able to negotiate frequently in his career in sales and marketing. In 2017, Mr. Festa took Professor Bill Logue’s 40-hour mediator training course at the QU Center for Dispute Resolution.
Upon graduation from Quinnipiac University School of Law, Mr. Festa continued to work for the State of Connecticut and accepted a position at the Department of Labor as an unemployment appeals referee for the Unemployment Security Appeals Division, which was a quasi-judicial role. In this position, Mr. Festa worked in mid-level appeals making decisions and writing opinions as to whether people would receive unemployment benefits or not. This job allowed him to act as both the trier of fact as well as the decision-maker in each particular case. Mr. Festa served in this role for around four and a half years.
Following this, Mr. Festa was hired as a Human Rights Attorney at the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities in Hartford, Connecticut. Mr. Festa has served in this role since 2015. As a Human Rights Attorney, Mr. Festa works in litigation both at the Office of Public Hearings and court to pursue the agency’s interest in eliminating discrimination. Mr. Festa has also defended the agency in administrative appeals of the Commission’s decisions. One of the best parts of this job is that Mr. Festa also is able to work in several different capacities, such as litigation, fact finding investigations, mediations, and settlement conferences. In mediations, Mr. Festa works as an independent third party mediating issues between complainants and respondents. Mr. Festa believes that as the mediator, you are working to show the benefits of settling while simultaneously ensuring that you do not put any pressure on them to settle. Mr. Festa stated that he really loves the work that he is able to do each day and emphasized that he loves how each day brings a new role, whether it be mediation, investigation, or litigation, requiring a different set of skills.
Outside of his work, Mr. Festa has a passion for helping other people. As a parent of a special needs child, Mr. Festa feels a personal connection to defending the rights of people with disabilities. Mr. Festa also expressed that he has a passion for political activism and defending the rights of others.
When asked if he had any advice for law students thinking about a career in ADR, Mr. Festa’s most important advice was that lawyers should follow the old rule to listen twice as much as you talk. He believes this strongly applies to mediation and ADR because you have to learn to read the parties and determine their best outcome. ADR is becoming much more accepted (and often required) by the courts, and lawyers have become more open to engaging in ADR over the past couple decades. Something Mr. Festa believes that all lawyers should be familiar with and willing to learn is how to listen and read the people in the room, because that is the key to a successful mediation. Mr. Festa’s final advice was that no one will leave the room 100% happy, but the key is to just listen to each side entirely and hope that you can reach a solution that both parties can live with.