Michael G. Tansley received his undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Connecticut in 1979 and his law degree from Rutgers University School of Law in 1983. He is admitted to practice in Connecticut state and federal courts. He is a member of the Waterbury and Connecticut Bar Associations and is a past member of the State of Connecticut Judicial Selection Commission.

Mike has been engaged in the practice of law for over 37 years and serves a wide variety of clients in a broad array of legal disciplines, ranging from litigating personal injury matters, business disputes, and environmental matters, to personal representation in commercial and residential closings, land use matters and probate matters. He has an extensive background in municipal law, serving as the Town Attorney and as Special Counsel for the Town of Wolcott, over a combined 27 year period.

Mike is involved in all aspects of municipal representation, including but not limited to, contract preparation and negotiation, development plans, land use boards and commissions, zoning code enforcement, tax matters, tax foreclosures and lien sales, eminent domain proceedings, extension of public utilities, acceptance of roads and related infrastructure, property assessments, litigation, environmental matters, labor issues, charter revision, ordinance drafting and enforcement, collective bargaining, heart and hypertension claims, and general advisory matters. He has served as Special Counsel for the City of Waterbury in several areas, including the litigation of Waterbury’s management and use of water resources for the City’s reservoir system, land acquisition and property condemnation, and the reconfiguration of municipal boundary lines. Mike has been honored to serve his clients before the Connecticut Appellate and Supreme Courts on many occasions, and has participated in three reported decisions regarding the protection of environmental resources and land use law: Town of Washington, et al, v. City of Waterbury, et al, 260 Conn. 506 (2002); Tarullo v. Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission of the Town of Wolcott, 263 Conn. 572 (2003); Verrillo v. Zoning Board of Appeals of the Town of Branford, 155 Conn. App. 657 (2015).

Mike lives in Wolcott with his wife and 2 golden retrievers, and is active in the local community, serving on the Board of Directors for Literacy Volunteers of Greater Waterbury as well as on the Wolcott Republican Town Committee. Mike has also taught continuing education for real estate brokers and agents for a number of years, and, when time permits, engages in his long held passion, playing and writing music.

Cicchetti, Tansley & McGrath LLP serves clients in Waterbury, Litchfield
and New Haven County, Connecticut.