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06/27/2018 08:00 AMEast Haven Town Attorney Joe Zullo has been a town resident and enthusiast for nearly his entire life. Raised in East Haven until his family relocated to Madison when he was in 7th grade, he says he just couldn’t stay away and his family, his work, and his passions centered around town since.
Growing up, Joe attended town events with his father, Al Zullo, who he says was involved with “all things East Haven.”
“As a kid, he took me along for most of his civic and political adventures, and so I fell in love with East Haven early on in my life,” Joe says.
Even when living in Madison, he spent the majority of his time after school in and around the family’s law firm in East Haven and later started working at the Rib House on the weekends, a job he continued through his years at Providence College—commuting back to work the weekend shifts.
After graduating magna cum laude at Providence College with a degree in political science he attended Quinnipiac Law School in Hamden.
“After opening the [acceptance] letter, I drove straight to East Haven with tears of joy in my eyes, because I knew I was coming home for good,” Joe recalls.
He finished law school with three academic achievement awards and the CATIC Foundation Award for the highest combined grades in real estate and property law, the fields in which he currently practices, and passed the bar that same summer.
Now Joe works at the family’s practice and as the town attorney for East Haven. He works with his parents at the firm and is fully involved in town affairs.
“My parents, Al and Roseann Zullo, live in Madison and operate our family law firm Zullo, Zullo, and Jacks, LLC,” said Joe. “My father, Al, is my partner and mentor. My mother, Roseann, is our paralegal and my guardian angel.”
He also has one brother, Al Zullo, who works as a pharmaceutical consultant and is a molecular biologist and biochemist. He’s also engaged “to my best friend—Danelle Feeley.”
Joe has also been involved politically in East Haven and worked with Joseph Maturo on his successful mayoral campaign in 2011. He had been previously worked on John Finkle’s campaigns.
After winning the election, Maturo assigned Joe to his current town attorney position.
“Despite having literally only 24 hours of experience as a lawyer, Mayor Maturo appointed me as East Haven’s town attorney, a position I’ve held with great pride ever since,” Joe says.
In his role, he serves as the legal advisor to all of East Haven’s boards, commissions, and officials, including the mayor. He reviews the town’s contracts, coordinates the town’s acquisitions and sales of real estate, provides the mayor with legal advice, serves as the administrator of the town’s legal self-insurance fund, attends all of the Town Council meetings and most Board of Finance and Police Commission meetings, and more.
“I think every town attorney brings something special to this job,” says Joe. “I came into this job as the youngest town attorney in the town’s modern history [at age 26]. I certainly came into it capable, but I’ve always felt that my greatest strengths were my youth and enthusiasm. And so I’ve sought to leverage those attributes in my role as town attorney by spending as much time as possible in our schools working with children.”
He spends time at Momaugin School participating in various events including Field Day, DARE Graduation, Read Across America Day and the school’s Math Competition.
“Sometimes, if I have a meeting cancel, I’ll just run down and play with the kids during gym,” Joe says.
He also is a volunteer for the East Haven Community Classic 5K Road Race Committee, a PTO sponsor and volunteer, an executive board member of the East Haven Chamber of Commerce, an East Haven Fall Festival Committee Volunteer and has spoken at the East Haven Historical Society and the Hagaman Memorial Library as a guest lecturer.
“For me, the best part of the [town attorney] job is actually outside the courtroom and in the community where I take every opportunity I get to be a positive role model and a resource for our students,” says Zullo.