Paul Ferencek. Courtesy photo

Tapped as the new state's attorney for the Judicial District of Stamford/Norwalk, longtime prosecutor Paul Ferencek said his main priority will be to continue to implement the office's three-year strategic plan.

The 59-year-old Stamford resident was sworn in as the new state's attorney on May 1, after the state's Criminal Justice Commission picked him for the post.

Ferencek succeeds Richard Colangelo Jr., who was elevated to the post of chief state's attorney. He said building on the strategic plan, which runs from 2019-2021, will make the office more transparent, accessible, and allow senior prosecutors to mentor junior prosecutors.

"The plan is a blueprint to make our office better, and to give us goals to attain," said Ferencek, who has been a prosecutor for 32 years and will oversee 14 prosecutors.

The plan, Ferencek said Thursday, has three components: efficiency, mentoring and community outreach.

The efficiency initiative, Ferencek said, has to do with resolving criminal cases that involve consolidating dockets and having them heard in one courtroom. "That enables prosecutors not to be detained in a number of courtrooms during the day, and will let them be accessible to the defense to negotiate cases."

The second component, Ferencek said, is the prosecutor mentorship program. Ferencek said he expects to lose at least four senior prosecutors to retirement in the next two years, calling it "a big brain drain."

To compensate for the loss of knowledge, Ferencek said new prosecutors will shadow senior prosecutors, but with a twist. While past mentorship initiatives had the junior attorneys watch as the senior attorneys would handle a case, now the junior attorneys will take over.

"It's the junior lawyer's case. The senior lawyer will take a back seat and the let the junior lawyers run with it," Ferencek said.

'Trusted prosecutor'

The third component of the strategic plan, Ferencek said, is something he's eagerly looking to implement: interaction with the greater Stamford community.

"The community outreach is not in place now. It has yet to be implemented," Ferencek said. "I will personally go out into the community. The community has a misconception as to what we do as prosecutors. Many people think we just go out and get convictions to put people in jail. That's not true. We serve the public. We are well attuned to the fact that people have substance abuse and mental health issues, and we resolve many of these cases with diversionary programs, as opposed to convictions. We must get out and tell our story."

Those that have worked with Ferencek say he's fair and trusted.

"Paul is well-trained and highly experienced with very complicated cases. He is very open and trusted," said longtime Stamford solo defense practitioner David Marantz. "He is open with sharing information with defense lawyers, and that makes him a trusted prosecutor."

Ferencek received his law degree in 1987 from the University of Bridgeport School of Law, which is now the Quinnipiac University School of Law. He is also an adjunct instructor at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport.

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