Hawthorne Ackerly & Dorrance

Hawthorne Ackerly & Dorrance is an estate planning attorney in New Canaan, CT. The firm is a general practice law firm serving the legal needs of Fairfield County, with a practice that includes estate planning, real estate, estate administration and probate proceedings, trust administration, business planning, charitable planning, supplemental and special needs planning, and employment law.

The firm traces its origins to 1926, when John Higgins opened a firm in New Canaan. Higgins was joined in 1937 by Dana S. Hawthorne, a 1927 Harvard Law School graduate who later served several terms as Probate Judge for New Canaan and was known from then on as "Judge" Hawthorne. After Higgins retired in 1947, Dana C. Ackerly joined in 1948; Ackerly was a Williams College and Yale Law School graduate who had served in the Cavalry Unit of the U.S. Army during World War II, and went on to serve as prosecutor and Associate Town Judge in New Canaan, as well as long-time chairman of Save the Children and Waveny Care Center. In 1950, Samuel R. Dorrance, a Princeton and Yale Law School graduate, joined as an associate. Over more than ninety-five years of continuous practice, the firm built a reputation for professionalism and experience throughout Connecticut. The firm has announced that it will be closing, with attorneys Jeremiah S. Miller and Michelle R. Hubbard retiring as of October 1, 2025.

The office sits on South Avenue, just across from the New Canaan Library and within a short walk of Saint Aloysius School, with Cobblers Green park a block away and The Playhouse nearby.