Deborah J. Tedford is an attorney and principal in the Tedford Law Firm of Mystic, Connecticut. She graduated from Yale University, cum laude in 1972 as a member of one of the first classes to include women, and from Boston University School of Law in 1976. She is also a qualified mediator, having completed 40 hours of formal mediation training.

Deb was elected President of the Connecticut Bar Association, an organization of over 11,000 members, for the year 2002-2003, and previously served as Secretary and Vice President of that organization. She is the past chairman of the Connecticut Bar Association’s Estates and Probate Section and also of its Elder Law Section. She is currently co-Chair of the CBA’s annual Federal Tax Institute of New England.

Deb was elected a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), a national organization of trust and estate attorneys, in 1992. She served three years as Chair of the Elder Law Committee of ACTEC and is a former Regent of the College. She is also a member of ACTEC’s Fiduciary Litigation Committee and Chair of the ACTEC/NCPJ Task Force working with probate judges around the country

As part of her years of service to the Bar and her profession, Deb co-chaired and was the principal author of the Connecticut Bar Association’s Report of the Task Force on the Future of the Connecticut Probate System, published in May 2003, assisting with reform of the probate courts. She has worked with colleagues to successfully enact a Connecticut version of the Uniform Trust Code, the Directed Trust Act, a Domestic Asset Protection Act and a revised Rule against Perpetuities statute in 2019. Deb is a member of the Special Needs Alliance. Currently she is serving as ACTEC’s observer to the Uniform Law Commission’s revisions to the national health care decisions act and recently served on ACTEC’s Task Force regarding Treasury’s Proposed Regulations to the SECURE Act.

Deb is a frequent speaker at the state and national levels on topics related to the field of trust law, including special needs trusts, estate and gift taxation, social security and undue influence in probate matters.

Faculty Member’s Sessions