Michael P. Shea currently serves as Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. He has chaired or served as a member of numerous District Court and Second Circuit committees, and he currently serves as a member of the Judicial Council of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, he was sworn in as a United States District Judge on December 31, 2012.

Before joining the bench, Judge Shea was a partner at Day Pitney (and previously Day, Berry & Howard), where he focused on commercial litigation, mass torts, First Amendment matters, and white-collar criminal defense. He also chaired the firm’s appellate practice group. Throughout his career in private practice, Judge Shea maintained an active pro bono practice, receiving awards from both the Hartford County and Connecticut Bar Associations for his work on behalf of indigent persons in civil and criminal cases.

Judge Shea also previously served on the Board of Directors of Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters, as the Treasurer of the Connecticut Supreme Court Historical Society, and as Chair of the Antitrust Section of the Connecticut Bar Association.

Before returning to Connecticut in 1998, Judge Shea was an associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, resident first in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office and then in its Brussels, Belgium office. His practice at Cleary Gottlieb focused on U.S. and European antitrust matters.

Judge Shea began his legal career as law clerk to the late Judge James L. Buckley of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Judge Shea graduated from Yale Law School, where he served as a Senior Editor of the Yale Law Journal, in 1993. He graduated from Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts, summa cum laude, in 1989.