Todd Higgins

An experienced trial lawyer, local business owner, and the proud father of six children—the youngest of which just started kindergarten at Middle Gate Elementary School—Todd Higgins has lived in Newtown since 2015 and was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Board of Education in June 2023.  He is now a candidate for the position. 

Higgins deeply understands the critical role that education and hard work plays in improving lives and building a better future and is dedicated to helping our schools to achieve this mission.  Raised in extreme poverty by a single disabled mother in Queens New York, Higgins was forced to leave school at age 14 to work full-time and help support his family.  From selling flowers on street corners to mopping floors at a Wendy’s, Higgins took shelter in the work ethic that has defined his life, while also earning his high school equivalency diploma at night.  After moving his way up in finance for Chase Manhattan Bank, where he became an Assistant Vice President, Higgins returned to school in the evenings to complete his undergraduate degree at the City University of New York at Queens College, where he majored in Political Science.  Passionate about learning, Higgins went on to earn his law degree from Fordham University School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude, was a member of the Fordham Law Review, and the recipient of the Fordham Law Prize (first in his class).

After graduating from law school, Higgins began his legal career in Washington D.C., where he focused on antitrust law and appellate practice, including matters before the United States Supreme Court, and briefly trained as volunteer guardian ad litem for abused and neglected children, before moving his family to Connecticut in 2002 and co-founding his own corporate law firm.  Higgins has spent the subsequent twenty years guiding public and private businesses, navigating complex disputes as a trial lawyer, and providing strategic counsel to entrepreneurs, boards, and non-profit organizations across many industries, including educational services.  He is also a trained arbitrator and currently serves as a court appointed mediator in the commercial division for New York County Supreme Court.

As an active member of the community committed to giving back wherever he can, Higgins has also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut, where he previously taught undergraduate courses in Constitutional Law in Stamford and West Hartford, and is a past recipient of GCGNY’s Henry Wimpfheimer Award for service. Most recently, Higgins co-founded and helped lead an emergency effort at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, in collaboration with Yale New Haven Hospital, to rapidly develop and successfully secure emergency use authorization from the FDA for a device designed to permit emergency sharing of ventilators at a time when the United States was facing an acute shortage of ventilators. Higgins is also the co-founder of numerous businesses and most recently founded Sandbox Beach Grill, a new restaurant and event venue in Newtown focused on happiness and encouraging a positive mindset, that opened earlier this year.

Higgins believes strongly in public service and is excited about the future of Newtown as an incredible place to raise a family, build a career, and launch a business. He also believes that a thriving school system with fully engaged and respected parents is crucial to our town’s continued success and should be a unifying force that brings our community together in pursuit of excellence.  He looks forward to the opportunity to serve Newtown on the Board of Education and to contributing his life experience and skills in service of ensuring that Newtown schools are best in class.