As Jeremy D’Amico sits down to begin talking about a recent case, a quiet fire begins to burn.
He’s discussing a case he litigated on behalf of a nursing home resident – a man with Alzheimer’s that had progressed to the point that he could not speak or move, making him exceptionally vulnerable to negligence.
One day, D’Amico says, the nursing home reported that the man seemed to be in pain and had extensive bruising. A trip to the ER revealed fractures in his shoulder, ribs and hip, and bruising throughout his body. He died just days later.
The police investigated the nursing home but could only explain one of the three fractures. When D’Amico and his team – including a forensic pathologist – investigated, they determined that both too much force had been used while changing his clothing, and that the man must have been dropped by a member of the nursing home staff, who did not report the incident.
D’Amico’s anger about the injustice of the man’s death, simmering at first, transforms into a flame of righteous indignation. “No one should get away with treating a life like that as disposable,” he says. “You can’t just drop someone – literally or figuratively – and pretend their life didn’t matter. Not on our watch.”
He pauses and softens. “I get passionate about it,” he says quietly. “It’s the way I’m wired. He just needed dignity.”
That belief in dignity – in the inherent worth of every life – has become a defining force behind his career as a plaintiffs’ personal injury lawyer. Known for his empathy and intensity, colleagues describe D’Amico as “a lawyer who feels the case in his bones.” Clients say he “listens like a family member and fights like a seasoned trial lawyer,” a rare combination that has produced some of the most significant personal injury results in Connecticut history.
A partner at the widely respected D’Amico Pettinicchi Injury Lawyers, D’Amico leads litigation involving nursing home negligence, medical malpractice, motorcycle and vehicular crashes, and other catastrophic injuries. He and his partners have obtained tens of millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements, including multiple eight-figure awards.
“Raised in the Law,” with His Own Path Forward
The son of founding partner Michael (“Mike”) D’Amico, Jeremy D’Amico grew up surrounded by the stories his father’s clients told – stories of injustice, struggle and perseverance. But his advocacy instinct began long before law school. He remembers watching classmates be bullied in elementary school and feeling compelled to step in.
“I don’t like people being picked on. I don’t like unfair fights,” he says. “When I see somebody getting picked on because they might be differently abled or they don’t have a strong enough voice, that bothers me to my core.”
Mike never pushed his son to be a lawyer. In fact, he suggested D’Amico explore another field. D’Amico chose kinesiology for his undergraduate studies – a background that later became critical to his medical malpractice and medically complex injury cases.
Still, the law called to him. “You have to be empathetic, driven, self-proficient and creative – and you have to want to help people,” he says. “The lawyers who excel are selfless to the Nth degree because you’re constantly sacrificing your time to help someone else.”
I don’t like people being picked on. I don’t like unfair fights.
Determined to forge his own identity, he attended the University of Miami School of Law, where he distinguished himself as Editor of the Law Review, a leader on the moot court board and president of the Mock Trial Society. But ultimately, his heart was in Connecticut – in the community and small-town environment where he grew up.
A Voice for the Voiceless
Over the decade since he joined the firm, D’Amico has returned repeatedly to three groups most often rendered powerless: the elderly, children and people with special needs. “As a trial lawyer, your only job is to be the voice for somebody who can’t speak for themselves,” he says. “They need somebody who is not afraid to fight for them.”
One of the firm’s core practice areas – and one in which it has been a statewide leader for decades – is nursing home abuse and neglect. Mike D’Amico pioneered nursing home litigation in Connecticut long before the rest of the bar accepted it as viable. “Mike saw what others didn’t,” says a colleague. “He understood the dignity of elders, and he never backed away from cases other firms wouldn’t touch.”
D’Amico has continued that legacy with vigor. “They’re not just somebody in a bed,” he says. “They’re a person with dignity, and they deserve a level of respect – and to die in peace, if they can.”
Nursing homes remain an industry plagued with systemic issues, from chronic understaffing to inadequate oversight. D’Amico has handled dozens of cases involving preventable pressure ulcers, infections, untreated injuries and fatal falls – all of which, he notes, stem from the same root problem: a failure to value the lives entrusted to their care.
“If you were to tell somebody that they had one day left to live, how valuable do you think that day would be?” he asks. “That day becomes immediately more valuable because you don’t have much left.”
Protecting Children and Families
D’Amico's work on behalf of children is equally resolute. In one landmark case, he and his father secured a $23M verdict – one of the largest in Connecticut history – for a young autistic boy who suffered catastrophic brain injuries in a school bus crash.
Determining damages for a child, he explains, requires imagining their life decades into the future. “The complexity of these cases is understanding those injuries and projecting them out not just 20 years, but 60 years or longer,” he says. “It’s a very nuanced, scientific inquiry.”
Inside the Strategy of a Trial Lawyer
While D’Amico is known for his empathy, he is equally respected for his intellect, strategy and command of detail. “Jeremy brings a rare level of preparation and creativity to trial work,” one colleague notes. “He thinks five steps ahead.”
His father echoes that sentiment. “Jeremy’s real. Jurors feel that,” Mike says. “But they also see how hard he’s worked to understand every detail of the case. It’s an incredibly powerful combination.”
Partner Tom Pettinicchi – known for his own extraordinary empathy and connection with jurors – describes D’Amico as “authentic to his core.” Pettinicchi is widely respected for the sincerity and steadiness he brings to every case. “Jurors believe Tom,” a colleague says. “They can feel his heart.” D’Amico credits Pettinicchi's example as “a master class in connecting with people.”
Record-Setting Motorcycle Litigation
Outside of nursing home and child-injury cases, D’Amico represents victims of medical malpractice, vehicular crashes and serious injuries. Both he and his father are motorcyclists, giving them unique insight into motorcycle cases – and their work in that area has been groundbreaking.
You have to be empathetic, driven, self-proficient and creative – and you have to want to help people.
This July, the D’Amicos secured a $45M verdict for a 26-year-old Marine reservist who was paralyzed in a motorcycle crash. The award, reported to be the largest motorcycle verdict in state history and one of the state’s all-time largest personal injury verdicts, will ensure he is taken care of for the rest of his life.
That landmark award underscores years of previous victories D’Amico and his team have achieved in the motorcycle accident space. In just his first or second year as a lawyer, D’Amico represented his cousin, who was hit head-on while riding his motorcycle. He was sent to the ICU in a coma before moving to a rehabilitation hospital. “It flipped his world upside down,” D’Amico remembers.
The criminal justice system, D’Amico says, does not often take cases like the marine reservist’s or his cousin’s as seriously as other crimes. So, the main recourse for justice is in the civil court.
“These cases are a wake-up call that this area of law can affect systemic changes more than one might think,” D’Amico says.
A Commitment to Truth
As passionate as he is, D’Amico is equally known for his directness and honesty. “My mission is always to tell you how it is,” he says. “I’m going to tell you the good and bad because I want you to have all the information to understand how this event has affected somebody’s life.”
He never strays from what’s practical – or what’s truthful. When he stands up in court, he presents the entire picture of every case, both sides, warts and all, placing the same trust in his jurors that he hopes they’ll feel in return.
That transparency surprises jurors who expect polished narratives rather than clear-eyed truth. “Clients describe Jeremy as ‘the lawyer who doesn’t sugarcoat anything – and that’s why we trusted him,’” a colleague notes.
A Family Legacy, and a Future Built on Purpose
Working alongside his father has been deeply meaningful. “It was such a blessing to have this time with your grandfather and my dad,” he often imagines telling his children.
Mike’s strategic brilliance and statewide leadership – especially in nursing home abuse litigation – continues to shape the firm. Colleagues widely regard him as “one of the most intellectually rigorous trial lawyers in Connecticut,” known for his meticulous preparation and his ability to see a case’s structure before others can. D’Amico says simply, “He’s the best mentor I could ask for.”
Together, the firm’s partners share a singular mission. “For these people, the entire rest of their lives depends on us succeeding for them,” D’Amico says. “It is about sending the right message, giving the family closure and enabling the community to say, ‘We’re with you.’”
That is the fire that fuels him – and the work of D’Amico Pettinicchi Injury Lawyers.
