Udell ’01 LL.M. Receives IMLA Amicus Service Award

HARTFORD, CT (April 21, 2016) - Jackson Lewis P.C., one of the country’s preeminent workplace law firms, is pleased to congratulate Hartford Of Counsel Collin O’Connor Udell '01 LL.M., who is the recipient of an Amicus Service Award for the amicus brief she submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in Heffernan v. City of Paterson on behalf of the International Municipal Lawyers Association (IMLA) and several other state and local government groups in support of Respondents.

Headshot of Collin O’Connor Udell
Through the Amicus Service Award, IMLA recognizes lawyers who have been actively involved in legal advocacy for and on behalf of local governments and IMLA, and who have done exemplary work to protect and advance local government interests.

Ms. Udell was recognized at an amicus awards ceremony at the IMLA 2015 Mid-Year Seminar in Washington, D.C. on April 15. The brief argued that a government employer’s mere perception that an employee has exercised his First Amendment rights is not equivalent to the employee’s actual exercise of those rights. In light of the multiple alternate remedies available to such an employee, the brief argued that there was no need to distort First Amendment doctrine to cover the mere perception of constitutionally protected activity when no such activity, in fact, occurred.

Ms. Udell’s practice focuses on United States Supreme Court litigation and on complex or novel issues arising in other federal appeals. She has taken a central role in 35 cases before the United States Supreme Court, some of which have been widely acknowledged as among the most important cases of the last few terms. In addition to her Supreme Court experience, Ms. Udell has represented clients in a wide variety of cases in the federal courts of appeals, including matters involving statutory construction and labor and employment.

Ms. Udell has significant clerkship experience, having clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit for the Honorable Bruce M. Selya; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit for the Honorable José A. Cabranes; and the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut for the Honorable Robert N. Chatigny. She received her J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law and her LL.M. from Yale Law School.