Pullman & Comley Attorneys to Be Honored at 2025 New England Legal Awards
HARTFORD – October 1, 2025: Multiple Pullman & Comley attorneys will be honored at ALM’s 2025 New England Legal Awards on Oct. 23 at The Westin Copley Place in Boston. The New England Legal Awards celebrate professional excellence within the legal community across Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, honoring outstanding contributions and achievements of legal professionals within the region.
D. Robert Morris, who leads the Tax Section of Pullman & Comley’s Business Organizations and Finance practice, is the winner of a Lifetime Achievement Award, an honor that recognizes a legal professional who has made a lasting and significant impact on the New England legal community across any practice area or sector. Mr. Morris served as chairman of Pullman & Comley from 1993 to 2013, leading the firm through a strong period of growth and expansion.
“A lifetime achievement award signifies sustained excellence over a long period of time, and Rob exemplifies that standard,” says Lee D. Hoffman, chair of Pullman & Comley. “As chairman of the firm for two decades, Rob made a lasting impact not only on his fellow attorneys and colleagues here, but across the entire region as well. We look forward to celebrating with him and all the other winners in Boston.”
Pullman & Comley’s distinguished Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) practice group is once again the Specialty Litigation Department of the Year for its excellence in arbitration or mediation, earning this honor previously in 2023. The firm was also named the top ADR overall provider in ALM's Best of New England Survey in 2020. The practice group’s five retired judges collectively have almost 100 years of judicial experience, and the team also includes attorneys who are American Arbitration Association (AAA) panelists with significant litigation and transactional experience.
Four other attorneys have been named finalists in their respective categories, with winners to be announced at the October ceremony. Judge Robert L. Holzberg (Ret.), who leads the firm’s ADR practice, is one of two finalists in the category of Outstanding Officiators, which celebrates judges, retired judges or ADR professionals who have demonstrated exceptional fairness, effectiveness and dedication in their officiating roles.
Megan Youngling Carannante, co-chair of the firm’s Labor, Employment Law and Employee Benefits practice, is a finalist for Best Mentor, which is awarded to a senior attorney who has shown exceptional dedication to guiding and developing the next generation of legal talent. Ms. Carannante is a seasoned litigator and counselor who represents clients ranging from small business owners to Fortune 500 companies. She also serves as co-chair of the firm’s Colleges, Universities and Independent Schools practice.
Two Pullman & Comley attorneys, Meagan A. Cauda and Danielle Erickson, are finalists for Most Promising Newcomer, an award that highlights attorneys with three or fewer years in practice who have shown remarkable potential, initiative and legal skill. Ms. Cauda is an associate in the firm’s Litigation and Appellate practices and focuses on civil appeals and general commercial litigation. Ms. Erickson is an associate in the Trusts and Estates and Tax practices where she assists with estate planning and estate and trust administration.
About Pullman & Comley
Pullman & Comley is one of Connecticut’s largest law firms and, for more than 100 years, has provided a wide range of legal services to clients in the New England region, as well as throughout the United States and internationally. Pullman & Comley’s major practice areas include business organizations and finance; labor, employment law and employee benefits; litigation; public finance; property tax and valuation; real estate, energy, environmental and land use; and trusts and estates, with focused sections including alternative dispute resolution (ADR); bankruptcy and creditors’ rights; education law; family law; health care; and hospitality, among others. The firm has offices in Bridgeport, Hartford and Westport, Connecticut; White Plains, New York; Springfield, Massachusetts; and Wakefield, Rhode Island. The firm is an active member of the Law Firm Alliance (lawfirmalliance.org), an international affiliation of law firms. For more information, please visit www.pullcom.com.