CT Patch Candidate Profile: Seth Klaskin For Judge Of Probate

MADISON, CT — The 2025 election is heating up in Connecticut and there are plenty of races with candidates eager to serve in elected office.

Connecticut Patch asked local candidates to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles as election day draws near.

Candidate's Name:
Seth Klaskin

What office are you seeking?
Judge of Probate for the 34th Probate Judicial District (Guilford and Madison)

What town do you live in?
Madison

Campaign Website
https://www.sethklaskinforprobatejudge.com

Party Affiliation:
Democrat

Occupation:
In total, my legal experience spans more than 28 years. I had over 11 years of experience in a civil litigation practice, where I commonly appeared in courts and probate courts throughout the state, before becoming a government lawyer and state manager, and a business law practitioner. Although I am not a practitioner in this area, per se, I also have developed experience with Education Law in my 16 years as a Board of Education member (all of which include serving on or chairing the BOE Policy Committee). I have resumed my litigation practice, focusing now on the areas of Environmental and Land Use litigation, with an office based in New Haven.

Family:
I have been married to Attorney Robyn Klaskin for 29 years. We practiced law together for over 11 years at a former iteration of Klaskin Law Office. She recently has ceased the active practice of law and has been serving for over a decade as Executive Director of Friends of Madison Youth, Inc., the nonprofit organization that runs programming and camps at the Madison Arts Barn.

Robyn and I have three grown daughters, all of whom attended Madison Public Schools from Kindergarten through Graduation. Our oldest, Danielle (“Dani”), is a laboratory biologist at EvolveImmune Therapeutics in Branford. She lives in Guilford. Our middle daughter, Erika (“Riki”) graduated from Pace Performing Arts in NYC and is building a career in the Arts. She recently was cast in a lead role in a play for the Queens Short Play Festival, and she is a Junior Producer of the Broadway-bound musical, MYTHIC (currently in its pre-Broadway run at Cincinnati’s Playhouse in the Park), among other adventures. Our youngest daughter, Shayna, is a Junior and a Change Maker Scholar at a university in North Carolina, studying to become a Child Life Specialist. Robyn and I could not be prouder of the wonderful young women our daughters have become!

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?
No.

Previous public office, appointive or elective:
I served for two elected terms on the Madison Zoning Board of Appeals (2003-2006) before running for the Madison Board of Education. I have served on the Madison Board of Education for 16 of the last 18 years (the past four years as its Chair).

I was appointed in 2019 by then-Speaker of the House, Joseph Aresimowicz, and subsequently reappointed by his successor, Speaker Matt Ritter, to serve on the CT General Assembly’s Data Analysis Technology Advisory Board (DATA Board). In this role, I helped draft, and continue to help update, the Connecticut State Data Policy.

I was appointed by then-Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, and served also under her successor, Secretary Denise Merrill, as Director of the Business Services Division at the office of the Secretary of the State of Connecticut (a position that requires the holder to possess a law degree due to the law-intensive nature of this office). While working for that agency, I served as the Secretary’s Designee to the Business Law Section of the Connecticut Bar Association, where I was appointed to serve on the Section’s Executive Committee and where I led the drafting of the Article 2 Filing provisions of the 2017 adoption of the Connecticut LLC Act.

I have also been appointed to several Madison town committees, including serving on the Town Strategic Plan Advisory Committee, the Neck River Elementary School Building Committee, and the Madison Ad Hoc Town Facilities Committee, among others. While serving on the Board of Education, I participated in three Superintendent Searches (including two permanent appointment searches and one Interim Superintendent appointment search). I have been an elected member of the Madison Democratic Town Committee for 22 years.

Why are you seeking this office?
I have long been interested in serving in the role of Judge of Probate. The position combines the deep and abiding value I place on public service with my sincere interest in serving families and children in my community. This position will extend my capacity to have a truly positive impact in shaping lives and on helping people who are in need of help. In a time of deep division and political mistrust between and among factions, I want to bring my record of fairness, empathy, and nonpartisanship in elected and appointed positions of public trust to a role that demands these qualities. I consider it a high honor and privilege to serve my community in this important way. I view the nonpartisan role of Judge of Probate as an opportunity to help restore civility to society, one case at a time, while also guarding the civil rights of our shoreline citizens by applying our Connecticut laws to probate matters.

The single most pressing issue facing my constituents is ____, and this is what I intend to do about it:
The single most pressing issue facing my constituents is the breakdown of civility and a mistrust in governmental institutions, including the courts, and this is what I intend to do about it: I intend to continue and extend a culture of access, justice, and fairness, delivered with respect and dignity for the litigants before the court, instilling confidence that folks have been heard and that fair justice has been derived in every case. Further, I intend to use my extensive experience as a public administrator to ensure smooth and efficient management of the docket and business affairs of the court, so that justice can continue to move swiftly at a local level. Finally, I intend to use my extensive policy experience to apply legal theory to each case with fidelity to the law and the precedents by which the court is bound. Applied together, I intend to use my unique skill set to maintain the community’s faith in our probate court, even as community members may differ in the confidence they place in other institutions.

What are the major differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?
My opponent and I both have probate court practice experience, and more than enough to exceed the qualifications to serve as a probate judge. Significantly and respectfully, there is a gulf of distinction between asserting one’s capacity for fairness, empathy, and effectiveness in public office, versus proving one’s experience administering public roles fairly, empathetically, and efficiently. Without taking anything away from my opponent, I have served for over 22 years in positions of public trust, as an elected official, and as a state manager and government lawyer. I can say without hesitation that I have a proven record of building consensus across the aisle and increasing administrative efficiencies to improve conditions for the people of my town and for Connecticut’s taxpayers. My opponent has not served in public office. Nor has my opponent held any position of public trust that required him to manage public finance, whereas he is running for an office that requires managing not only the docket, but also the business affairs of the local court.

When managing a large operation for the State of Connecticut, I reduced my budget by a basis of $4,000,000/year while vanquishing 18-month filing backlogs that had been built up before I took over the management of the division. I accomplished all of this while losing over 30% of my workforce to attrition during The Great Recession. I had to conceive and apply administrative, policy, and technology innovations to accomplish this, and I was twice nominated for CT State Manager of the Year for efficiency-driving innovations I implemented in service of my fellow taxpayers. The business and banking communities and the business law bar greatly appreciated the efficiencies my leadership brought to the state’s business entity regulation and commercial recording operation.
As the Board of Education Chair, I have presided over average budget increases of less than 2% over the past 5 years (among the very lowest in the state), while the schools have experienced an unprecedented record of achievement during that time. This does not happen without vision, planning, and consensus-building. Even as a member of the minority party in the past, I conceived and succeeded in implementing a Special Education Fund that carries over from year to year. This ensures that unexpected spikes in Special Education costs and cuts in state reimbursements neither blow our budgets nor diminish the excellence of services delivered to this deserving student population. I was instrumental in articulating the need for Schools Renewal and in getting it passed at referendum. As a direct result, Madison’s projected school maintenance liability has been reduced over the ten-year horizon from over $110,000,000 to just over $40,000,000. Our smaller footprint includes newer buildings that are safe, secure, and designed to deliver education in modern, energy-efficient facilities. I led (with the help of the Board and the District Administration) a four-year initiative emphasizing Social Emotional Learning in response to the national epidemic of youth depression and anxiety. The results of all this? Ever-increasing student achievement across the board. Madison Public Schools attained the #1 rating in the CT Schools Accountability Index for the first time in 2024, with all of its schools designated as CT Schools of Distinction, and Daniel Hand High School receiving a National Blue Ribbon School designation.

These are but a few examples of my effectiveness in applying fairness, empathy, and public finance acumen while acting in the public trust. I am the only candidate who is proven in my ability to manage the docket and the business of the court, and to maintain a culture of compassion for litigants, in a way that will ensure the continued efficient and humane application of justice in Guilford and Madison’s probate court.

What other issues do you intend to address during your campaign?
The probate courts deal with emotionally charged matters involving folks experiencing the stress of losing a loved one, of having to seek conservatorship over a parent, spouse, or adult child, or guardianship of a child, for example. Many of the parties are not represented by counsel. It is therefore very important that probate judges take care to show patience, tolerance, and kindness to the folks facing these challenging moments. In both my extensive law practice and my public service roles, I have demonstrated that I possess the character to treat all litigants with the dignity and respect they deserve, even if they are not at their best when they enter the courtroom.

Further, objective observers have noted that civil rights have been diminished by the current US Supreme Court, and the Court announced that it will be reconsidering same sex marriage on this Fall’s docket. Connecticut’s Constitution and our state statutes and precedents traditionally have granted a greater bundle of rights to individuals than exists in federal law. Our probate court will be on the front line, administering justice in cases involving same sex marriage, adoption by parents of the same sex, name changes, and other matters that Connecticut law protects. Voters can trust me to apply Connecticut law to preserve the full set of rights our state deems worthy to extend to its citizens.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?
I feel that my prior responses have answered this question sufficiently and I respectfully rest on those responses.

What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?
My maternal grandmother rose from a humble immigrant existence to serve as the Assistant to the Chief of Immigration & Naturalization in NYC back in the 1960’s until her retirement in the 1980’s. She would jokingly remind me on occasion that, “If you want something done, ask the secretary, not the boss.” It was a reminder that, often, the people toiling in service jobs are the ones who are best positioned and most likely to be helpful. That ethic has long guided me in all my social and public interactions. I sometimes find myself in rooms that give me access to influential people, but I never forget that the ones who can be most helpful are often the secretaries and not the bosses. It is a constant reminder that each of us contributes to society, and each is worthy of dignity and respect.

My grandmother is no longer with us, but her moral lives on in me and will be carried always in my courtroom, should I be fortunate enough to be seated as the next Judge of Probate.

Is there anything else you would like voters to know about yourself and your positions?
No, thank you!