Mary Bannon, SVP and General Counsel, ConnectiCare, Inc. & Affiliates, a Connecticut-based HMO where she began an innovative practice of “rounds,” and was a sponsor of a re-engineering process. Mary has been practicing employment law on the side of management since 1979. Additionally, she has over twenty years of experience in health insurance and managed care law. Mary has held In-house management experience as General Counsel for ConnectiCare, Deputy General Counsel for Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and General Counsel for Health Net of the Northeast, Inc.

Prior to her experience in management, Mary was a consultant with the Human Resource Consortium, a Partner specializing in employment and health insurance law in the Waterbury-based law firm of Carmody & Torrance, an Associate in labor, employment and health care law with Shipman & Goodwin and Robinson & Cole, and a Litigation Manager for Cigna Corporation’s Group Benefits Department.

Mary’s background includes extensive involvement with affirmative action, equal employment opportunity, employment contracts, discrimination claims and lawsuits, compliance investigation, preparation and review of human resource policies and handbooks, creation and presentation of training programs for management and supervisory staff on a wide variety of employment matters, and response to union organizing campaigns. She has developed and conducted presentations to lawyers and human resource professionals on a variety of topics including violence in the workplace, disability discrimination, sexual harassment and privacy issues in electronic commerce. Because Ms. Bannon has herself been an executive in companies, she has hands-on experience in the day-to-day problems and challenges that confront employees and their frontline managers.

Ms. Bannon holds a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard University, a Masters in Classics (Greek and Latin) from Trinity College (Hartford) and a B.A. magna cum laude (English, Greek and Latin) from Smith College. After receiving her Master’s degree, she taught English and Latin for four years to middle and high school students in Florida and Connecticut. Additionally, she has taught healthcare and business law for the University of Hartford’s Barney School of Business and Public Administration and The Hartford College for Women.

To learn more, visit:  www.connecticare.com/