Antonio C. Robaina

ANTONIO C. ROBAINA was appointed to the Superior Court in 1998 and retired after 20 years on the bench. At the time of his retirement, he had served as the presiding judge for civil matters in the Hartford Judicial District. During his tenure, he served in judicial districts throughout the state as a trial judge in civil, criminal, family, and juvenile cases. He served as an administrative or presiding judge for the majority of his career and served as the presiding judge in the civil, criminal and family courts.

Upon his retirement, he joined McElroy Deutsch and has since acted as a mediator and arbitrator in over four hundred (400) matters in cases involving most types of civil litigation.  In his legal and judicial career he has served as the co-chairperson of a bench/bar committee with respect to medical malpractice cases. He has mentored law school students through the Connecticut Hispanic Bar Association Mentoring Program and also served as a mentor to other judges through the Judicial Branch mentoring program.  He was a member of the Rules Committee of the Judges of the Superior Court.

He is a James Cooper Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation.  He was the chairman of the Diversity Award Committee for the Lawyer’s Collaborative for Diversity.  

From 1979 to 1998, Judge Robaina practiced law in New Haven, Connecticut.  His general practice included plaintiff’s personal injury, insurance defense, criminal defense, immigration law and family matters.   He was a member of many organizations, including the New Haven County Bar Association, the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the National Hispanic Bar Association, and the Connecticut Bar Association. He was one of the founders and a member of the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Hispanic Bar Association, which has honored him with an Achievement Award.

Judge Robaina served as the president of the board of directors of The Connection Fund, Inc., a nonprofit corporation designed to develop real estate for charitable purposes.  During his tenure, The Connection Fund completed the state’s first supportive housing project called Liberty Commons, which consists of 40 units of supportive housing in Middletown.  That organization also built supportive housing for pregnant women in Groton called Mother’s Retreat, a children’s space called Kid’s City in Middletown and renovated the former YWCA in New Haven to house treatment and rehabilitation facilities.