About Preston Tisdale

More than 40 years ago, Preston began his legal career at Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder. He later left to pursue other legal and civic ventures. Preston's legal accomplishments and his devotion to community service made him a welcome addition back at Koskoff in 2010. Prior to returning to Koskoff, Preston served as the Director of Special Public Defenders for the State of Connecticut, Office of Chief Public Defender.

Preston held this position since its inception and administered all Special Public Defender operations and functions within the Division of Public Defender Services. Before this appointment, Preston headed the Fairfield Judicial District Public Defender's Office. Preston is the President of the Public Justice Foundation. He serves on the Board of Governors of the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association (CTLA) and the American Association for Justice (AAJ), on the Connecticut Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparity in the Criminal Justice System, and has served as a faculty member of both the National Defender Training Program and the Connecticut Bar Association (CBA) Continuing Legal Education Program.

He has also served on the Connecticut Supreme Court Chief Justice's Criminal Justice Committee, on the Connecticut Hate Crimes Advisory Committee. He has served as a member of the CBA Professionalism Committee and the Professional Discipline Section. In other civic capacities, Preston serves on the Boards of Directors for Fairfield County's Community Foundation and the Bridgeport Public Education Fund, Inc., and on the Advisory Board for the Center for Children's Advocacy.

He is also the Immediate Past Chairperson of Regional Youth/Adult Social Action Partnership (RYASAP) and Vice-Chairman and past Chairman of the Central Connecticut Coast YMCA. Preston graduated from Brown University and the New York University School of Law. He is a Past-President of the Brown Alumni Association and a Trustee Emeritus of the Brown University Corporation.

Proven verdicts and settlements at Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, P.C.

These results are credited to Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, P.C.. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.

On December 14, 2012, a 20-year-old gunman used a Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle made by Remington to kill 20 first graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Nine of the victims' families sued Remington in 2014, arguing that its marketing of the AR-15-style rifle to young, violence-prone men was an unfair trade practice that fell outside the federal immunity gun makers enjoy. The Connecticut Supreme Court let that claim proceed in 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene, and after Remington went through bankruptcy twice its four insurers agreed on February 15, 2022 to pay the families the full $73 million available under five policies. Remington also had to release thousands of pages of internal marketing documents.

Connecticut Superior Court, Waterbury (complex litigation docket), with payment approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama · 2022Wrongful DeathRead the full story →

A Waterbury jury awarded Dominic and Cathy D'Attilo and their son Daniel $58.6 million after finding that obstetrician Richard Viscarello delayed a necessary cesarean section during Daniel's birth, depriving him of oxygen and leaving him with severe cerebral palsy.

Superior Court at Waterbury, Connecticut · 2011Medical MalpracticeRead the full story →

A federal jury awarded Cara Munn $41.7 million after she contracted tick-borne encephalitis on a school-sponsored trip to China and lost the ability to speak, and the Connecticut Supreme Court later held that schools can owe students a duty to warn about and protect against insect-borne disease on trips abroad.

U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut, No. 3:09-cv-919, with certified questions decided by the Connecticut Supreme Court at 326 Conn. 540 (2017) · 2013Read the full story →

E.M. was a boarding student at the Yeshiva of New Haven from 2001 to 2005, and from age 14 to 17 the school's rabbi and chief administrator, Daniel Greer, sexually abused him on a frequent, sometimes weekly basis. In May 2017 a federal jury in Connecticut awarded E.M. $15 million against Greer and the school, and on June 6, 2017 the court entered a $21,749,041.10 judgment after adding $5 million in punitive damages and $1.75 million in offer-of-compromise interest. The Second Circuit affirmed in full on March 3, 2020, rejecting the argument that the award was excessive. Greer was separately convicted and sent to prison; by 2021 less than $240,000 of the judgment had been collected, and E.M.'s collection suits against Greer's real-estate nonprofits were resolved privately in 2024.

U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, Hartford · 2017Sexual AbuseRead the full story →
$15.4 millionVerdictTop 20 in Connecticut · #16

A New Haven jury awarded the estate of Maria Ocasio $15.4 million after finding that an anesthesiologist and nurse anesthetist from Meriden-Wallingford Anesthesia Group failed to recognize and respond to her respiratory collapse during a routine outpatient endoscopy, leading to her death.

Connecticut Superior Court, New Haven Judicial District (New Haven jury) · 2024Medical MalpracticeRead the full story →

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.

Education

New York University School of Law
Juris Doctor (J.D.)
Brown University
Undergraduate

Other attorneys at Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, P.C.

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Proven verdicts and settlements from other Bridgeport firms

Trantolo & Trantolo
Trantolo & Trantolo
$2.9 Million Settlement in Connecticut Wrongful Death Car Crash
Brandon J. Broderick, Personal Injury Attorney at Law
Brandon J. Broderick, Personal Injury Attorney at Law
$44 million · Construction Worker Left Without Oxygen for 20 Minutes After Debris Chute Collapse Wins $44 Million Settlement

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.