The son of a former longtime Connecticut judge, U.S. District Judge Michael Shea said it was his extensive pro bono work with several law firms that made him not only a better person, but also a better jurist.

Shea, who maintained a busy pro bono practice at both Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in Washington, D.C., and then later with Day Pitney in Hartford, said it was working on dozens of pro bono cases that helped him see people, specifically the less fortunate, in a different light.