Gary Phelan is a shareholder at Mitchell & Sheahan, P.C. He represents employees and employers in a wide range of matters, including disability and age discrimination, family responsibilities discrimination, wrongful termination and severance negotiations. He is the co-author of Disability Discrimination in the Workplace (West Group) and Family Responsibilities Discrimination (BNA/Bloomberg). Gary was selected by peer review in Best Lawyers in America (1995-2023) and was designated as a “Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers for the Stamford, CT Region in 2012. Gary was selected for the Connecticut Super Lawyers (2006-2023), and was designated as a “Local Litigation Star” in Benchmark Litigation (2013-2023). In 2016 and 2017, Gary was named by Moffly Media as one of “the 200 Outstanding Lawyers in Fairfield County.”

He has written and lectured on a wide range of employment-related topics. Gary teaches disability law, employment discrimination law, negotiation, and alternative dispute resolution as an adjunct professor at the Quinnipiac University School of Law.

He often serves as a commentator on employment law topics and has appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, NBC Nightly News, CBS This Morning, CBS Evening News, Fox News, Court TV and MSNBC. He previously served on the Executive Board of the National Employment Lawyers Association (“NELA”), was President of the Connecticut Employment Lawyers Association and was the co-chair of NELA’s Disability Rights Committee. He was the Chair of the Connecticut Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Section in 2014-15.

Gary has served on the Board of Directors of A Better Balance and Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities and on the Board of Advisors for the New York Office of Disability Rights Advocates. He is currently on the Board of Directors for the Greater Bridgeport Bar Association and the Community Mindfulness Foundation.

Gary graduated from Siena College, Magna Cum Laude, and Albany Law School, where he served as a Note and Comment Editor for Albany Law Review. He is admitted to practice law in Connecticut and New York State Bars and before the U.S. District Court in Connecticut and the Southern District of New York, and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Gary Phelan
Rated by Super Lawyers


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Gary Phelan
Rated by Super Lawyers


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Bar Admissions
  • Connecticut, 1988
  • New York, 1989
  • U.S. District Court District of Connecticut
  • U.S. District Court Northern District of New York
  • U.S. District Court Southern District of New York
  • U.S. Court of Appeals 2nd Circuit
  • U.S. Supreme Court