About Jacques Parenteau

Mr. Parenteau represents employees in state and federal courts in the State of Connecticut. Since 2006, he has been selected by peers to be listed in the “The Best Lawyers in America ” for the practice area of Labor and Employment Law. Like the firm itself, Mr. Parenteau has received an “AV” rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the highest Peer Review Rating for legal ability and ethical standards.

His practice focuses exclusively on employment litigation at the trial and appellate levels. On behalf of clients of the firm, he has presented and continues to assert employment related claims of wrongful discharge, age, gender, race and sexual orientation discrimination, sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination, whistleblower and First Amendment claims, breach of employment agreements, wrongful denial of academic tenure, defamation and invasion of privacy claims and termination without due process in municipal and state cases.

Mr. Parenteau received his education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (Bachelor of Arts, Magna Cum Laude, 1979) and the Washington College of Law at The American University, Washington, D.C. (Juris Doctor 1982). He is a member of the American and Connecticut Trial Lawyers Associations, as well as the Connecticut and National Employment Lawyers Associations. He is admitted to practice in the state and federal courts in Connecticut and Rhode Island and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

In July of 2004, Mr. Parenteau represented two of the three physicians who won a $5.5 million jury verdict on the Waterbury Complex Litigation court against Yale University*. When punitive damages and attorneys’ fees were added, a judgment of nearly $10 million was entered against Yale in a case involving First Amendment free speech violations involving alleged Medicare fraud and patient safety. In May of 2003, a jury on the Norwich Complex Litigation docket awarded three plaintiffs represented by Mr. Parenteau $6.8 million.

When punitive damages and interest were added to the verdict a judgment in excess of $14 million dollars was entered against the Pequot Mystic Hotel, LLC for intentional infliction of emotional distress resulting from the defamatory termination of three managers employed by the Mystic Hilton. In January of 1999, Mr. Parenteau won a $12.7 million jury verdict in the Hartford Superior Court against Trinity College. A denial of academic tenure case, the suit against Trinity College also involved claims of gender and age discrimination, negligent misrepresentation and breach of contract.