ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM TONG
WILLIAM TONG
Attorney General
William Tong is the 25th Attorney General to serve Connecticut since the office was established in 1897. He took office on January 9, 2019 as the first Asian American elected at the statewide level, in Connecticut.
Before his election as Attorney General, Tong served for 12 years in Connecticut’s General Assembly representing the 147th District, which includes North Stamford and Darien. Most recently, Tong served as House Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. In this position Tong was responsible for all legislation related to constitutional law, criminal law, civil rights, consumer protection, probate, judicial nominations and the Judicial branch, and major areas of substantive law.
During his service in the legislature, Tong helped lead passage of landmark legislation, including the Connecticut Second Chance Act, Domestic Violence Restraining Order Act, Lost and Stolen Firearms Act, the Act Protecting Homeowner Rights, and the Act Protecting Schoolchildren.
A Connecticut native, Tong grew up in the Hartford area and attended schools in West Hartford. He graduated from Phillips Academy Andover, Brown University and the University of Chicago Law School. He has practiced law for the last 18 years as a litigator in both state and federal courts, first at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, in New York City and for the past 15 years at Finn Dixon & Herling LLP, in Stamford.
Tong is the oldest of five children, and grew up working side-by-side with his immigrant parents in their family’s Chinese restaurant. He and his wife, Elizabeth, live in Stamford with their three children and too many pets. Elizabeth is Vice President of Tax for North America for Diageo Corporation.
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL EILEEN MESKILL
EILEEN MESKILL
Deputy Attorney General
Eileen Meskill was appointed by Attorney General William Tong in January 2023 to serve as the Deputy Attorney General for the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General.
Eileen joined the Office of Attorney General in 1997 after working as an associate with the firm of Gaffney, Kane, Reynolds & Sullivan. Eileen has been assigned to several sections (formerly departments) in the Office, including Health and Education, Consumer Protection and Infrastructure & Economic Development (formerly the agency’s Transportation section). In those sections, Eileen represented many state agencies in difficult, complex and highly impactful cases, trying and arguing cases in the Connecticut Superior Courts, Connecticut Appellate and Supreme Courts, as well as the U.S. District Court and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
In 2014, Eileen was appointed Chief of the Infrastructure and Economic Development Section where she oversaw the representation of many agencies including, but not limited to, the Department of Transportation, Department of Administrative Services, Department of Housing, and the Department of Motor Vehicles. In this role, in addition to supervising the section, she negotiated and mediated large construction claims, reviewed, advised, and approved contracts for the agencies, and consulted and advised the Attorney General and Office leadership on transportation specific issues such as condemnations, construction, contracts, procurement law and administrative appeals.
Following her years of strong leadership as a section chief, Eileen was appointed in 2022 by Attorney General Tong to serve as an Associate Attorney General and Chief of the Division of Government Administration, overseeing the functions of the Office’s Child Support & Collections, Infrastructure & Economic Development and Special Litigation sections.
Eileen graduated from Fairfield University with a degree in Economics and received her J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law. She is married to her husband, Drew, and has two stepchildren. They reside together in New Britain.
LEADERSHIP
ANTORIA D. HOWARD
Assistant Deputy Attorney General for Administration and Management
Antoria Howard serves as the Assistant Deputy Attorney General for Administration and Management, a position she has held since 2013.
In this role, Antoria is responsible for the overall management of the staff of the Office of the Attorney General, including overseeing the budget of the office, as well as human resources. She also is responsible for staff development, professional training, office policies and procedures. Antoria is a faculty and advisory board member of the National Association of Attorneys General Training and Research Institute (NAGTRI).
Antoria joined the Office of the Attorney General in 1997 as a member of the Public Safety Department, where she represented the Connecticut State Police and the Connecticut Department of Correction, among other agencies, in state and federal court.
In 2001, Antoria transferred to the Employment Rights Department, a newly-created department established to handle all employment-related matters for all state agencies. There, she defended state agencies, employees, and officials in court and at administrative agencies in employment discrimination actions. Antoria is an excellent litigator with extensive experience trying many state and federal court cases to verdict.
Antoria was appointed as Department Head of the Employment Rights Department in 2011 where she supervised a staff of attorneys, paralegals, and administrative professionals, in addition to advising state agencies on employment-related issues.
Prior to joining the Attorney General's Office, Antoria was an Adjudicator and an Administrative Hearings Attorney at the Department of Public Health. She also spent several years in private practice where she specialized in housing and family law.
Antoria received her undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College and her law degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law. She is a native of Baltimore, Maryland, where she attended public and private schools. She is married, has two sons, and currently resides in Bloomfield.
SANDRA ARENAS
Special Associate Attorney General
and Chief of the Division of Consumer and Constituent Affairs
Sandra G. Arenas was appointed as the Special Associate Attorney General for Constituent and Consumer Affairs in 2019 by Attorney General William Tong after he was sworn-in to office on Jan. 9, 2019. In this role, Sandra handles all matters relating to consumer and constituent concerns.
Prior to her appointment, Sandra served as an Assistant Attorney General for 22 years in the Consumer Assistant Unit in the Department of Consumer Protection. She was responsible for mediating disputes between consumers and retail businesses and recovered in mediation approximately $1.5 million for consumers. Sandra also investigated violations of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (CUPTA) and enforced the act in Connecticut.
Prior to joining the Connecticut Attorney General's Office, Sandra worked as an Assistant Attorney General in the Harlem Regional Office of the New York Attorney General. In that role, she litigated civil and criminal cases under New York Consumer Protection laws and conducted and participated in consumer outreach to the Latino community.
After graduating from the University of Connecticut School of Law, Sandra started her legal career at a law office in Bronx, New York where she worked as an Associate Attorney for two years.
MATTHEW FITZSIMMONS
Chief Counsel
Matthew Fitzsimmons serves as the Attorney General’s Chief Counsel.
Matt first joined the Attorney General’s Office in 2006 in the Consumer Protection Department, where he investigated and litigated consumer protection matters, including leading consumer protection multistate investigations.
In 2011, Matt was named the Chair of the newly created Privacy Task Force in the Attorney General’s Office - a multidisciplinary team created to educate the public about data protection and to focus the office's response to internet privacy concerns and data breaches that affect consumers. In 2015, Matt was named the first-ever head of the Connecticut Privacy & Data Security Department – the first such organization within a state attorney general’s office in the United States – and was lead attorney on all data security and privacy matters.
In 2017, Matt was appointed as the U.S. Privacy Officer and Lead Cybersecurity Counsel at Cigna
Corporation, where he also previously served as the head of Cigna’s Privacy Information Protection Compliance Office and as lead Privacy and Cybersecurity Counsel. While at Cigna, Matt handled complex privacy and information protection matters and led the firm’s incident response team in investigations, breach notification and incident management. Matt was also the lead privacy counsel and advised on Cigna’s data access and use issues during Cigna’s $67 billion acquisition of Express Scripts. He also oversaw the implementation of privacy-related legislation and regulation.
Matt later served as a partner at Shipman and Goodwin in the firm’s State Attorneys General and Data Privacy and Protection Practice Groups. He counseled clients on defending against and responding to data breaches, handling investigations, and complying with data privacy laws and regulations. Matt also advised clients in investigations and litigation around the country involving state attorneys general.
Matt returned to the Office of the Attorney General in 2021 to serve as Special Counsel for Opioids, leading the agency’s opioids investigations, litigation, and settlement negotiations.
JEREMY PEARLMAN
Associate Attorney General
and Chief of the Division of Enforcement and Public Protection
Jeremy Pearlman serves as the Associate Attorney General and Chief of the Division of Enforcement and Public Protection, overseeing the functions of the Office’s Antitrust, Government Fraud, Child Protection, Consumer Protection, Environment and Privacy sections.
Jeremy joined the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office in 2003 after starting his career as a litigator in Boston. Jeremy was assigned to the Consumer Protection Department, where he successfully pursued enforcement actions against a variety of businesses engaged in unfair and deceptive business practices. In 2013, Jeremy joined the Antitrust and Government Program Fraud Department. He also served on the team leading the landmark national effort against Moody's and S&P for their conduct leading up to the financial crisis. In 2015, Jeremy returned to the Consumer Protection Department as Deputy Department Head. There, he handled a variety of important cases and investigations, and authored the Attorney General’s amicus brief in Soto v. Bushmaster.
In 2017, Jeremy became head of the Privacy and Data Security Department, where he oversaw the office’s leadership of major multistate actions yielding landmark data breach settlements against Equifax, Uber, Home Depot and Anthem, among others. He also co-led the office's efforts relating to opioids, including the Attorney General’s leadership role in the multistate investigation of prescription opioid manufacturers and distributors, and the State’s lawsuit against Purdue Pharma and its board members, including the Sackler family.
In December of 2020, Jeremy became head of the Antitrust and Government Program Fraud Department. There, he oversaw several major healthcare fraud cases and the multistate antitrust action against generic drug makers for price fixing.
Jeremy graduated from Boston College in 1996 and Boston College Law School in 2000. He is a regular speaker and instructor on the Attorney General’s enforcement authority.
JOSHUA PERRY
Solicitor General
Josh was named Solicitor General in 2022, after three years serving as Special Counsel for Civil Rights to Connecticut Attorney General William Tong. He is responsible for overseeing all of the appellate litigation conducted by the Attorney General’s Office and for drafting formal opinions of the Attorney General.
Before joining the agency, Josh was a longtime civil rights litigator and policy advocate. In the years after Hurricane Katrina, he was Counsel for Special Litigation and General Counsel at New Orleans’ public defender. Then, as Executive Director of the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, he ran the Deep South’s only specialized juvenile justice civil rights law office. He has also been Deputy Director of Connecticut Legal Services and an Associate Research Scholar at Yale Law School.
Josh is a graduate of Harvard College and New York University School of Law, where he was named to the Order of the Coif and served on the Law Review. He lives in New Haven with his wife, Anna VanCleave, and their three daughters.
ALAYNA STONE
Associate Attorney General
and Chief of the Division of Civil Litigation
Alayna Stone serves as the Associate Attorney General and Chief of Civil Litigation for the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General, overseeing the functions of the Office’s Employment, Workers’ Compensation & Labor, Health & Education, Public Safety and General Litigation sections.
Prior to her appointment, Alayna served as an Assistant Attorney General for 8 years in the Special Litigation section. In both federal and state courts, she represented all the constitutional offices within the Executive Branch, and various entities within the Connecticut Judicial Branch, including the Connecticut Appellate Court and Superior Court judges, on issues including constitutional challenges on the basis of due process, equal protection, free exercise and free speech. In addition, she led the implementation of the settlement agreement reached in SEBAC v. Rowland, a class action lawsuit that included nearly 50,000 current and former state employees.
Prior to joining the Attorney General’s Office, Alayna clerked at all levels of Connecticut’s courts. She spent two years at the Office of Legal Research, providing legal research primarily for Superior Court judges in the New Haven JD and GA 23, one year at the Connecticut Appellate Court clerking for now-Chief Justice Richard A. Robinson, and one year at the Connecticut Supreme Court clerking for Justice Carmen E. Espinosa.
Alayna received her undergraduate degree from Yale University, a Master’s in Public Policy from Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy (formerly Georgetown Public Policy Institute), and her law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center.
Alayna is married with two children.