Summer of Love Meets Law and Order

When Rick Sarner K’73 arrived at King for his first day in sixth grade, it was the 1967 “Summer of Love.” As he donned the burgundy blazer uniform with hair trimmed above the collar, Timothy Leary was advising people to “turn on, tune in, drop out.” Aretha Franklin was demanding “Respect.” John Lennon graced the cover of Rolling Stone’s first issue, and Mrs. Robinson was causing controversy.

Slowly, the aesthetic of the culture infused the King campus, and by the time Sarner graduated from Middle School, the boys were sporting shaggy mop tops and frayed bell bottoms.

By ninth grade, the Low-Heywood girls had moved in next door, and the schools began sharing curricula. Low-Heywood offered King students theater for the first time, and King augmented the math and science options available to Low-Heywood. Sarner joined a group of students from both schools to publish a paper called The Joint.

“It was a great time to grow up,” said Sarner, a former trustee and the second of three generations in his family to attend one of King’s founding schools. “Everyone had long hair and bell bottom pants by the time I graduated. If you saw a student from behind, you couldn’t tell if they went to LowHeywood or King. But regardless of how we looked outwardly, the focus was always on getting a good education.”

The counterculture revolution and the liberal arts education had a lasting impact on Sarner, who straddled conformity and autonomy in carving a career path according to his own rules.

“I was always a generalist,” he said, adding that his curiosity about a wide range of topics drove his course selection when he entered Dartmouth College. “I majored in geography, which in college is less about countries and their capitals and more about exploring the impact of location on the development of different societies and countries. It provided me with the balance and diversity I was looking for.”

At Dartmouth, he took a course in environmental law taught by an assistant attorney general in Vermont.

“I found it fascinating,” he said. “I loved the Socratic method. I was drawn to law because it could be applied in many different ways.” He graduated from Dartmouth with a major in geography and environmental studies and headed to Hofstra University to study law.

After Hofstra, he joined hundreds of lawyers in one of Manhattan’s bestknown firms, Shea & Gould. Though he had his sights on trial work, he used his career to explore different paths within the profession. For two years, he honed his litigation skills at the firm before moving to the smaller D’Amato & Lynch, joining a team of 75 attorneys and focusing on legal malpractice defense.

“Legal malpractice defense work was very interesting because I was looking at the ‘case within the case’ to determine whether the lawyer had committed malpractice,” Sarner said. “To answer the question, I had to learn that practice area.”

As his skills grew in range, he was attracted to smaller firms. He joined Lowenthal Landau Fischer & Ziegler, where he worked in commercial litigation for the next six years. While at the firm, he married Sharyn Frank. As their family grew, the couple moved to Connecticut.

“It didn’t take long before I was over the commute,” said Sarner, who wanted the freedom to manage his time. “I decided to hang out a shingle and start my own practice. I never thought I had it in me to be a solo practitioner, but once I did it, I realized I was extremely well suited to it.”

As a KLHT parent, Sarner joined the Board of Trustees and brought his expertise to help the Development Office create its first planned giving initiative .

After being immersed in the decadence of 1980s Manhattan, Sarner opened his office in Stamford in 1991 and built a practice focused on trusts and estates for the next 27 years.

During that time, King, then King & LowHeywood Thomas School, returned to the fore. Sarner’s father, George Sarner K’49, was the first generation to go to King, followed by Sarner and his sister, Gail Sarner LH’75. In the ’90s, Sarner’s children, Bryan KLHT’07 and Lauren KLHT’10, became the third generation to attend the school. Now a grandfather, Sarner hopes for a fourth.

As a KLHT parent, Sarner joined the Board of Trustees and brought his expertise to help the Development Office create its first planned giving initiative. Throughout his board tenure, he chaired the Trusteeship Committee and the Buildings and Grounds Committee and its subcommittee, which

Rick Sarner K’73

developed the school’s first master plan.

“I live eight minutes from the school and drive past it on my way to and from work every day,” he said. “I have watched the campus grow and the athletic fields spread across it. It’s amazing how the school has grown.”

Five years ago, Sarner was approached by a partner at Zeldes, Needle & Cooper. The firm, based in Bridgeport, was looking to expand its Stamford office and build its estate planning services. After so many years on his own, Sarner was excited to collaborate again.

“At this point in my life, I enjoy being part of a team,” he said. Sarner also keeps in touch with his King classmates through a Facebook group of 1970s alumni from King, Low-Heywood, and Thomas Schools, and he helped organize his 50th class reunion in October.

Through years of change, the counterculture still echoes in Sarner’s love of music. An avid musician, he has less time than he would like to riff on his guitar, but rock ’n’ roll is always playing.

“I still listen to lots of music,” he said. “My superpower is that I often win trivia contests if the subject relates to rock music from the ’60s through the ’90s. I also love running, as I find it to be a great stress-reducer. And when combined with music, running feels like dancing.”