Adele Patterson

Senior Assistant Public Defender, Connecticut Public Defender, Appellate Office

Adjunct Faculty

Adele Patterson is an assistant public defender in the Appellate Office of the Connecticut Public Defender. She represents individuals in criminal and habeas corpus appeals and provides legal support to trial offices. She joined the Connecticut public defender’s office from private practice in 1996. She has worked as a trial attorney in the Habeas Corpus Unit and, from 2005 to 2010, as acting head of that unit. In her appellate practice, Patterson has succeeded in Connecticut Supreme and Appellate Courts cases such as State v. Riley (mitigating characteristics of youth must be considered before imposing discretionary life sentence on young offender), Luurtsema v. Commissioner (retroactive application of narrowed definition of kidnapping under state common law) and State v. Cortes (court may not refer to criminal complainant as the victim when jury must decide if an offense occurred). She also has trial and appeal experience in the district court and Second Circuit. She began her criminal defense practice as a student in the trial and appellate clinics of the UConn School of Law, from which she graduated with honors in 1989. She also holds a BA in history from Brown University.