Community Corner

Pre-Primary Profiles: William P. Osterndorf, Judge of Probate

Osterndorf in his own words. Second in a three-part series.

Tuesday's primary will determine which of three Republicans candidates for Judge of Probate will represent the party in the general election. The winner in November will be the first judge for the combined New Canaan-Darien Probate Court when the state's consolidation plan goes into effect on January 5, 2011. 

Mike Murray, Bill Osterndorf, and John Ryan are the candidates vying to take over a position currently held by Russell Kimes in New Canaan and John Rearden in Darien.

In the first of our three-part series, run earlier, Mike Murray answered questions for Patch.  Now it's Bill Osterndorf's turn.

Find out what's happening in New Canaanwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

WILLIAM P. OSTERNDORF

Age: 53

Find out what's happening in New Canaanwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Lives in: New Canaan

Grew up in: Poughkeepsie and Stamford

Education: Fordham Law School, '82, Manhattan College, '79, BS Business

Employment: Law Office of William P. Osterndorf

Personal: Married to Marie, two children, ages 16 and 14

On why he's the best candidate for Judge of Probate:

Temperament is very important.  I'm very level headed and people find me to have a very calm, assured demeanor.

I have close to 20 years experience with probate courts. I do wills, trust work, residential real estate work, income tax work and then probate administration. I've been very active in the probate courts.

About 10-15% of my work is pro bono. Probate courts need attorneys to represent people that have no ability to pay for legal services themselves. So they'll call up attorneys and ask us if we'll handle matters. I never decline their request.  The plus side of doing that is it exposes you to work outside the normal probate work.

On consolidating the New Canaan and Darien probate courts:

I much prefer the town-wide basis. Probate courts are informal to begin with, but a town-wide basis gives you the opportunity to know the judges and the clerks, and from an attorney's standpoint, I prefer that. I understand the state's trying to save money, but the bottom line, from my standpoint, is the New Canaan court was making money for the state, the Darien court was making money for the state. Maybe it made sense for some of the courts in other parts of Connecticut to be combined, I didn't think it was necessary here in Fairfield County.

On campaigning for Judge of Probate:

There are certain elected jobs like probate judge and town clerk that are totally non-political. It's unfortunate that you do have to go through a political process to get them.

This is the second time I've run for probate judge. The first time was in 2000. It was just New Canaan at that point and I was the relatively new person having only been in town for ten years at that point. I came in third in the caucus so I've had an interest in running for quite some time now.

On Darien and New Canaan selectmen endorsing Mike Murray:

I think they have to answer whether those endorsements were personal endorsements or more political. Did they endorse people because they're friendly with them? Because they've known them? Or did they endorse them because they thought that person was most qualified to be probate judge? If they look at our records and experience with the probate courts, to me it doesn't make sense that they endorsed Mike Murray.

Next in the series:  John Ryan


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