Samuel V. Schoonmaker, IV

About Sam

A person is the mosaic of experiences. My mosaic expands constantly, and its foundation rests on athletics, academics and parenting. This narrative looks at athletics.

I played several sports well as a child, but not well enough to be a recruited college athlete. Yet, I wanted to compete for a varsity team.

I started by trying out for the Yale University soccer team as a “walk-on.” Anyone who played sports seriously knows that a tryout is not a single event. Rather, it is months of training that culminate in several days of assessment (much like a court trial). I spent the entire summer before my first semester at college training in a gym, running on a track, and playing in pick-up soccer games.

After a multi-day tryout in hot August weather, I was selected as the only walk-on member of the Yale soccer team. Yet, I was a “defender” in high school, and there already were ten skilled defenders on the team. I needed to switch positions and play offense. Despite my best efforts, however, I simply did not score goals. I did not see an achievable path to the starting lineup.

So, I tried out for the Yale tennis team as a walk-on. I won some matches and made the bottom of the team. Yet, with new skilled players arriving every year, I did not see a feasible path to the top nine who represented the university in varsity matches.

I could kick a soccer ball pretty far, and so I joined the Yale football team as a field goal kicker. I was intrigued by the pressure that field goal kickers experience, and I had dreams of winning a game on the final play. I rose to the first string on varsity as the “on-side kicker,” which is a position that may get zero or one kick in a game per season. That was too niche to merit the time commitment. Looking realistically at the three other kickers on the team, I concluded that I would not win the starting position as a field goal kicker.

Alas, there was a lot more to do at Yale than play sports. I left all intercollegiate teams after sophomore year and focused on being a student. In senior year, I applied for and was accepted as a graduate student at Cambridge University in England.

When I arrived at Cambridge, I met the men’s varsity ice hockey captain at a social event. He told me that graduate students could play for university teams, and that the better skaters came from Canada and the United States. I hadn’t played full contact ice hockey since high school, but I had competed on a “no contact” intramural college team for the past four years. I saw this as one last chance to contribute to a varsity team.

My family shipped over my gear, I took up residence at the fitness center, the coach allowed me to try out for the preexisting team, and I made the varsity. Shortly after I joined, two men of the first line got into an intense verbal argument and needed to be separated. The coach told me that our best player was an obnoxious jerk, but that we needed him skating on the top line. He put me on the first line with the difficult man, along with an affable third forward who already played on the top line.

I finished the season second on the team in both goals and assists. I finally contributed to a varsity team as a starting player. Ice hockey now reminds me that life presents unexpected opportunities. A person needs to remain open to seeing and seizing them.

Sam, the Professional

After graduating from Columbia Law School, I went to work as a litigation associate for Day, Berry & Howard (now, Day Pitney).  Two years later, my attorney father and several colleagues decided to leave their large law firm to start a boutique matrimonial law firm in Greenwich.  I joined Schoonmaker & George as a junior lawyer, and I left eleven years later as a partner.  I handled custody and financial disputes for high net-worth individuals.  

I wanted to be a judge at that stage in my career. I spoke with the chair of the Judicial Selection Commission, who told me that before applying for a judgeship I should age another five years and broaden my work experience beyond matrimonial law.

I founded an appellate law firm known as the Schoonmaker Legal Group, LLC in 2007.  Only a small percentage of family law cases result in appeals, after a judge imposes a solution following a contested trial.  Appellate practice is great training for judges, who do not want their decisions reversed on appeal.  Appellate matters almost always involve extreme complexity, high levels of interpersonal conflict, or both.

For fifteen years as an appellate lawyer, I worked on the same side as lawyers from dozens of different family law firms, appeared many times before the Connecticut Supreme Court and the Appellate Court, and served as Chair of the CBA’s Family Law Section.  I was a frequent speaker at legal education programs in Connecticut and throughout the United States.  I created my own e-newsletters, developed multi-media educational programs, and published dozens of articles in established journals. I also started teaching undergraduates as an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut.

Through those interactions, I came to know Broder Orland Murray & DeMattie LLC.  I had long admired their professionalism and their approach.  When an opportunity to join the firm arose in 2022, I acted.  I now spend more time on premarital agreements and less time on high conflict litigation.  Decades of experiences forever will inform my thinking, however.  I still handle appeals and contested trials.  Yet, my primary focus now is on helping people resolve their family law matters in a civilized and respectful manner, alongside work colleagues with whom I enjoy working.