Shawn Wooden is a Partner at the law firm of Day Pitney LLP, where he currently leads the firm’s public pension plan investment practice. Shawn has spent his adult life helping to improve the financial stability and security of working families. But his passion for public service began at home.
The youngest of six kids raised in North Hartford, Shawn’s parents moved from Georgia to provide a better life for him and his siblings. From a young age, they taught him the importance of a good education, hard work and giving back to your community. His father ran a small business. His mother was a teachers’ aide in a program to prepare preschool-aged children for school. She later worked at the Community Renewal Team as part of their lead poison prevention and energy assistance programs. Shawn’s parents’ work embodied the lessons they taught him as a child and had a strong influence on how he would lead his own life.
Although Shawn grew up in Hartford, he participated in Project Concern, a de-segregation busing program, and attended Manchester Public Schools. He graduated from Manchester High School with honors. He went on to earn a four-year academic scholarship to Trinity College in Hartford, where he now serves as a member of its Board of Trustees. Upon college graduation, Shawn worked for the Mayor of Hartford and then as Connecticut Director of Project Vote, a national voter registration and education program and then as a key aide for Connecticut Commissioner of Social Services. Shawn later attended New York University School of Law before beginning his career at Day Pitney. Early in his legal career, Shawn worked in the AFL-CIO's Office of Investment in Washington, D.C.
Shawn is a member of the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys. He regularly speaks on panels in the investment industry and recently co-authored an article for Bloomberg Law's Pension & Benefits Daily entitled “Consolidation of Public Pension Plan Investment Management: Is This a Solution to the Problem?” Pensions and Investments named him one of the "Twenty-Five Investment Professionals to Watch". Super Lawyers magazine designated Shawn a Connecticut Super Lawyer for Securities and Corporate Finance, Business/Corporate.
Beyond the practice of law, Shawn previously served as the President of the City Council of Hartford, CT. He also served as a member of the Connecticut Citizen’s Ethics Advisory Board, the body which interprets and enforces the state’s ethics laws and oversees the Connecticut Office of State Ethics.
Shawn is also the proud father of two young boys.
As Treasurer, Shawn will continue to put his passion for public service and experience with complicated financial and investment issues to work for the people of Connecticut. He will use real experience to get real results.