Attorney Michael D. Day
Attorney Michael D. Day graduated Valedictorian of the bicentennial class at Cheshire Academy (high school). He attended the Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences as a Chancellor’s Scholar, where he received (summa cum laude and with honors) a bachelor of arts in philosophy, while maintaining membership in the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. Mr. Day was accepted into multiple Ph.D. programs in philosophy but ultimately decided to pursue the law. Mr. Day’s philosophical interests concern metaphysics, ontology, identity, persistence, space, time, modal logic, early modern (e.g., Spinoza). While at Syracuse, Mr. Day studied under William Alston, Jonathan Bennett, Jose Benardete, and John Hawthorne.
Mr. Day attended the Syracuse University College of Law, which has been ranked in the top 10 for its trial and appellate advocacy programs by the U.S. News and World Report, where he was a member of the Moot Court Honor Society, an Associate Editor of the Syracuse Law and Technology Journal, and Editor-in-Chief of the Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce, the oldest student-run international law journal in the country. Mr. Day also received the Journal of International Law and Commerce Gavel Award.
Mr. Day’s legal experience is diverse. He has worked on complex issues in the following areas of practice: tax, intellectual property, securities, civil rights, commercial, civil, family and criminal. Mr. Day has tried criminal and civil cases to both juries and courts, and he has engaged in appellate litigation in state court, federal circuit court, and the United State Supreme Court. Attorney Day was predominately a trial attorney in the beginning of his career, and today he devotes his practice to state and federal appellate litigation.
As a trial attorney, Mr. Day was successful in the following brief sample of cases: Criminal - Attorney Day won an acquittal on one count of Sexual Assault in the First Degree in a high level, Part A criminal jury trial. Employment - Mr. Day secured a dismissal for a medium size corporation in a sexual harassment case. Personal Injury - Attorney Day secured a plaintiff’s verdict after an extensive and highly contested jury trial. Family Law - Divorce - Mr. Day obtained a significant non-taxable property distribution for the wife after a trial in a high net worth divorce case and successfully argued to the court that the wife should be able to retain all pre-marital assets, including their appreciated values during the marriage. In another divorce trial, Attorney Day was successful at trial in convincing the court that the husband was more at fault for the breakdown of the marriage than the wife and in proving that the husband hid significant sums of money in his 15 year old daughter's bank account weeks before he filed for divorce. Mr. Day successfully convinced the court to award his client her share of the hidden money by offsetting the division of the marital assets in favor of his client. Family Law - Custody - One of Mr. Day’s clients, a well-regarded narcotics detective and Marine, was accused by his ex-wife with the oral and anal penetration of his four year old son. Attorney Day worked tirelessly on the case, and after an extensive investigation by the police and the Department of Children and Families, it was determined that Mr. Day’s client did not commit any of the alleged acts. Rather, it was determined that Attorney Day’s client’s ex-wife coerced the minor child into saying such horrific things about his father. Mr. Day immediately filed a post-judgment action against the ex-wife, and after 12 days of evidence, during which time expert witnesses testified, Mr. Day secured sole legal and physical custody of the minor child for his client, and the child’s mother is now only able to see the minor child at set times and in a clinically supervised setting. The child's mother was later criminally prosecuted for her actions, and is now a convicted felon.
Attorney Day’s extensive experience as a trial attorney has assisted him immensely in his appellate practice. As an appellate attorney, Attorney Day was successful in a recent family law appeal in convincing the appellate court to reverse the trial court’s judgment with respect to an issue of third-party visitation. Mr. Day recently argued an appeal before the Eighth Circuit (St. Louis, Missouri) addressing a complicated issue of apparent first impression concerning digital imagery in a criminal appeal. Attorney Day also recently argued before the Eighth Circuit (St. Louis, Missouri) a complex issue of apparent first impression addressing US Supreme Court jurisdiction. Mr. Day later filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the US Supreme Court.
Attorney Day is admitted to the bars of the State of Connecticut, the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, the United States Court of Appeals for the 1st (Boston, MA), 2nd (New York, NY), 3rd (Philadelphia, PA), 4th (Richmond, VA), 5th (New Orleans, LA), 6th (Cincinnati, Ohio), 7th (Chicago, IL), 8th (St. Louis, MO), 9th (San Francisco, CA) and 10th Circuits (Denver, CO) Circuits, and the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Day is currently a member of the Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the American Bar Association (Criminal Justice Section, and the following committees: Appellate & Habeas; Corrections; Criminal Practice Management / Solo and Small Firm; Criminal Procedure, Evidence and Police Practices; Innocence to Ensure the Integrity of the Criminal Process; and Science Technology and Forensics) and the Connecticut Bar Association.
Most recently, Attorney Day agreed to undertake the representation before the Eighth Circuit (St. Louis, Missouri) of an individual in a federal civil rights appeal.
Mr. Day and his wife, Dr. Joyce C. Day, a therapist in private practice and former full-time, tenure track professor, reside in central Connecticut with their daughter and Siamese cat. They are expecting their second child. When not working, Mr. Day spends time with his family, bikes, plays pick-up basketball games, reads (philosophy, science, personal productivity) and plays with Apple technology.