Brendan O”™Rourke is pushing 50, but he”™s not about to hang up his skates and retire from amateur ice hockey ”“ a passion he developed when he was about 10 and played neighborhood pond hockey during the winter in Pelham, N.Y. “What”™s unique about hockey is that there”™s an extraordinary number of adults that continue to play,” he said, despite their ages. “People rarely continue in sports like football, baseball or lacrosse,” but ice hockey is something else.
O”™Rourke belongs to a private hockey rink in New Canaan that fields three adult men teams that include “men over the age of 40, some in their 50s and some into their 60s who play regularly against other teams from other towns,” he said. “There”™s a very active hockey league out there, and what makes the sport unique is its attraction for people who started playing when they were young.”
Like most ice hockey players, O”™Rourke started playing on icy ponds before graduating to Pelham”™s pre-high school hockey team, then played defense on the Wilton High School Warriors in the nearby Ridgefield ice rink after his family moved across the state line to Wilton. After graduating from high school in 1976, he attended the University of Virginia where he received a bachelor”™s degree in economics in 1980 ”“ but had his hockey passions iced a bit after the university lost the use of the private rink the team used.
After graduation, O”™Rourke joined Chemical Bank on Wall Street in the corporate training program for commercial lending, but lasted only a year there. “I ended up deciding to go back to graduate school, and earned a law degree and a master”™s in international economics and international law in 1985.”
The University of Virginia”™s master”™s degree was “more of an academic degree, but I first became interested in it as an undergraduate when I took some courses in international economics and international political economics, which is kind of esoteric,” he said. “In some sense, economics is a science and it can be highly quantitative, but the application of economic principles necessarily involves political decisions ”“ like the issue of private property rights, like communism versus capitalism, or other issues where political concerns affect economic policies, like the flat income tax rate versus the graduated tax rate or the tax on sales versus income.” And if that sounds a bit professorial, there”™s a reason, but that”™s down the road a bit.
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Shocking decision
Armed with his law degree, O”™Rourke went to work for the Hartford-based law firm Day Berry and Howard in its Stamford office. Day Berry ”“ now Day Pitney since a recent merger ”“ is the largest law firm in state, he said, “so I returned home to Connecticut,” working in the real estate and the corporate departments as an associate. “Law firms don”™t have titles, just partner or associate, and anyone out of law school is always an associate.”
He didn”™t remain an associate for long. He left the firm two years later to start his own practice in New Canaan “because I decided I would be more content in running my own small practice and taking the type of work I wanted to take on.”
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The move was a bit of a jolt to his contemporaries. “I was relatively young when I did that, and most people were shocked because Day Berry was the largest old-line firm in the state,” he said of the prestige of it all. “It”™s the dominant firm in Connecticut, and is outside counsel to all the insurance companies and utilities. They built up a Stamford presence in the early ”™80s and it”™s now one of the largest firms in Stamford.”
But “I wanted to make decisions for myself,” he said. “As a young attorney leaving the security and prestige of that firm and starting my own was regarded as a fairly significant risk to take, which it was. I was 29, and to be a lawyer for only two or three years to start your own practice is very young.”
O”™Rourke initially focused on real estate and corporate commercial matters, and over the years developed a commercial litigation practice as well. “For a year or so I was by myself, then a partner joined me and then through the next 10 or 12 years I added another partner and some associates.” His one-man show had become O”™Rourke O”™Hanlon and Zimmerman with an office in Stamford with four lawyers and another five in New Canaan. “What ended up happening was that some of the partners went back to the big firms and I decided to go back to being small again.” In 2000, he became O”™Rourke and Associates once again.
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Pickup basketball
Through it all, O”™Rourke continued to play pickup hockey ”“ a bunch of guys showing up at an ice rink and choosing up teams. “Years ago, Norwalk had an ice rink that was pretty ugly and it”™s been gone for a number of years, but we would just show up at the rink, make teams and play.” Then, eight or 10 years ago, he said, “I became a member of the New Canaan Winter Club and played as part of its men”™s C-2 teams.”
Amateur ice hockey teams are ranked by the skill levels of the members. “A C-2 team is for guys who are a little less skilled,” he said. But the teams are made up of “a lot of competitive men who play hard and at a fairly high level for doing something as an avocation.” In fact, “I would say it has honed my competitive instincts, which is helpful for my commercial litigation practice,” he said.
Hockey, by the way, isn”™t the only competitive sport O”™Rourke likes to play. He”™s into golf and skiing and “I play full-court basketball at lunch an average of three to four days a week at the New Canaan YMCA,” he said. “Over the years, anywhere from a dozen to 20 guys have formed a core group at lunch and play pickup basketball,” he said. “I come back to the office and eat lunch at my desk. I rarely go out to lunch.”
His best teammates, though, are his two sons, who also have a passion for sports and play golf and ski with their dad. Conner is a student at the University of Wisconsin, and Devon is a senior at the New Canaan High school and is following in his dad”™s skate marks on the hockey rink. Both were on championship basketball teams in high school, and Devon is captain of the golf team. More important, though, is that O”™Rourke has been able to “create a wonderful relationship with two special kids.”
And, backtracking a bit, that master”™s degree in international economics and international law he received in 1985 “does and doesn”™t” connect with his law firm, he said. “I have actually done some international work for a subsidiary of a British company, and the economic aspect of the degree ties in with my commercial practice.”
But because the master”™s degree had a large academic component, “I always thought I could perhaps use it in getting a teaching position at a college or law school in New England,” he said. “I think after Devon finishes college in four or five years I would start to think about a transition.”
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