Edward Wood "Jack" Dunham

DUNHAM, EDWARD WOOD

From Extraordinary Life: Jack Dunham earned a national reputation for his work in franchise law.

Jack Dunham was a white-shoe lawyer with a dry sense of humor, respected legal skills, and a gift for friendship that reached across the aisle to his opponents in court. He was down to earth, but dressed elegantly; he hosted a country music program on his college radio station, and was known to his old friends as BD, for "Barn Door," his radio name.

Edward Wood Dunham, inexplicably nicknamed Jackie by his older brother, died May 1. He was 61, and had suffered from multi-system atrophy, a rare neurological disease that affects blood pressure, digestion, and heart rate, for about seven years.

From Obituary May 2015

Edward Wood Dunham, known to all as “Jack”, died on Friday, May 1st at Yale New Haven Hospital. He was 61. His death was caused by complications due to Multiple Systems Atrophy, an illness that he battled over the last several years of his life.

Born in New Haven, CT on July 9, 1953 to parents Carol Reynolds Dunham and Carroll Dunham, Jack was raised in Old Lyme, CT. He graduated from Trinity College in 1975, Phi Beta Kappa with honors in history, and received his J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1978, where he was a Note & Comment Editor of the Law Review. Following law school, he clerked for the Honorable Robert A. Ainsworth, Jr. on the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans, LA.

In 1979, he joined the law firm of Wiggin and Dana in New Haven, where he began a successful career as a prominent litigator, later becoming a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Jack became a partner at Wiggin and Dana in 1985. Always actively involved in the management of the firm, he served as Chair of the Executive Committee from 2002 until 2006 and Chair of the Litigation Department from 2009 until 2013. Widely recognized as a national figure in the field of franchise law, Jack’s list of prominent clients included Subway, Direct Buy, The Goddard School, Schlotzky’s and Maaco. He was a highly regarded member of the American Bar Association Forum on Franchising, having assumed a number of leadership roles in the organization. From 1997 until 2000, he served as the Editor in Chief of the Franchise Law Journal. From 2000 until 2007, he was the Member at Large of the Forum’s Governing Committee and from 2007 until 2009 he served as Chair of the Governing Committee.

His many contributions and accomplishments during this time left a lasting mark on the organization and in the field of franchise law, particularly in the area of dispute resolution. Consistently since 2003, he was recognized by The Best Lawyers in America as an exceptional franchise lawyer and commercial litigator. Chambers USA 2013 ranked him as one of the ten leading franchise lawyers in the United States and also one of Connecticut’s top commercial litigators.

He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Dunham; three children, Hayden, John and Eliza Dunham; a stepson, Nicholas Logan; and a brother, Carroll Dunham.

A memorial service will be held on Friday, May 8th at 10:30 am at the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, 4 Lyme St., Old Lyme, CT 06371. A reception will follow at the New Haven Lawn Club, 193 Whitney Avenue, from 12:30 to 2:30 pm. Donations can be made in his name to the charity of one’s choice. To sign the online guestbook please visit hawleylincolnmemorial.com

Published in The New Haven Register on May 6, 2015

• "This past Friday we lost my beloved uncle Edward Wood “Jack” Dunham ..."