U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Judge Christopher Droney. Courtesy photo.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Judge Christopher Droney will leave the federal bench in January and will join the powerhouse firm of Day Pitney, where he will focus on litigation and appellate work.

The 65-year-old jurist, who President Barack Obama appointed to the New York City-based Second Circuit in 2011, wanted to return to his roots, his brother John Droney said Wednesday.

John Droney, a partner with Hinckley, Allen & Snyder, said his brother started at Day Pitney soon after graduating law school in the late 1970s and still has friends at the firm. "I believe the firm is looking to attract someone with his reputation and ability," John Droney said.

Jamie Sullivan, a partner with Howard Kohn Sprague & FitzGerald, said Droney's move to Day Pitney is part of a pattern he is seeing at Connecticut's largest firms, which are picking up attorneys from high-level government positions. Last year, Connecticut's former Attorney General George Jepsen announced he was moving over to Hartford's Shipman & Goodwin and former Connecticut Supreme Court Chief Justice Chase Rogers joined Day Pitney. This year, former Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Joette Katz also joined the Shipman team.

"This is consistent with a trend among law firms to hire former judges with excellent reputations," said Sullivan, who has known Droney for 35 years.

Sullivan, who like Droney is a resident of West Hartford, said Droney has been a "fair and unbiased, insightful and creative" judge. Droney previously served on the West Hartford town council and then as the city's mayor. He and representatives at Day Pitney were not immediately available to comment about his planned move Wednesday.

John Droney said there was also another reason for his brother's move: Family.

"He wanted to be in Connecticut full time because he wants to spend more time with his children," John Droney said. "He has three daughters and two will be having babies in the next few months, including one who will be having twins."

John Droney noted his brother has spent considerable time in New York City hotels while working at his federal position in lower Manhattan.

"His life was in a hotel 25% of the time and, after a while, that gets old," John Droney said, adding that his brother has a strong work ethic. "Even at 65 years old, he still has gas in the tank," he said.

From 1979 to 1993, Christopher Droney was in private practice in Hartford. He worked for Day Pitney and was later a partner at Reid & Riege. In 1993, Droney was appointed U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut, where he served until his appointment to the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut in 1997. He was elevated to his current post in December 2011.

Droney received his law degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law, where he was a notes and comments editor of the school's law review.