Fotis Dulos’ estate reaches settlement of legal fee dispute with his attorney — but mother of missing mom Jennifer Farber Dulos opposes the deal

The administrator of Fotis Dulos’ estate has reached an agreement with his defense attorney, Norm Pattis, to repay nearly $140,000 in legal fees the estate says it is owed because Dulos took his own life before facing trial in the murder of his estranged wife, Jennifer Farber Dulos.

But Gloria Farber, Jennifer’s mother and a key player in the complicated dispute, is opposed to the deal. Farber, a trustee of Fotis Dulos’ estate, has filed suit against Pattis in Hartford Superior Court and, before his death, sued Dulos for over more than $2 million in outstanding loans.

“At this time, the Trustee has expressed an unwillingness to support this settlement, which would prevent the settlement from fully and finally reaching fruition,” attorney Christopher Hug wrote as part of a filing Tuesday in in probate court in Farmington. Hug asked the probate judge to accept the agreement despite Farber’s opposition.

“The Administrator is hopeful that the Trustee and Mrs. Farber will see the prudence in this settlement and that it is in the best interests of the Estate and their own interest,” Hug wrote.

Under the agreement, Pattis will pay the estate $137,500 from a retainer that Dulos paid him after he was arrested for murder. The deal is contingent on Farber’s lawsuit against Pattis being dropped.

Dulos attempted suicide in January by trying to poison himself with carbon monoxide in the garage of his Farmington home. He died a few days later in a New York hospital and a Stamford Superior Court judge dismissed the murder charges against him.

Hug said he initially demanded that Pattis pay back $255,769 but the two sides went through mediation and were able to reach an amicable settlement.

However, during those negotiations attorney Richard Weinstein, who represented Gloria Farber in a civil suit against her estranged son-in-law, filed a lawsuit in a Hartford court asking that court to order Pattis to pay back the full amount. In that lawsuit Weinstein is alleging that Pattis violated the “rules of professional responsibility” by not returning the retainer after Dulos died on Jan. 30.

Pattis, who represented Dulos since he was arrested about a week after Jennifer Farber Dulos disappeared on May 24, 2019, has claimed that he earned the money between representing Dulos all three times he was arrested and fighting a gag order that had been placed on Pattis by a Stamford judge.

Hug said even though Farber filed the lawsuit, the two sides kept negotiating until reaching the settlement.

“Despite the commencement of the lawsuit, the parties continued negotiations in good faith. After persistent efforts and the exchange of analyses and positions, the administrator and Pattis & Smith LLC reached a tentative settlement to submit for approval of this Court,” Hug wrote.

Probate Judge Evelyn Daly will likely schedule a hearing to decide whether the proposed settlement is a fair one and whether to accept it.

Settling Dulos’ estate has been sharply contentious, with lawyers sparring over furniture and jewelry and the scraps of Dulos’ estate. Most of the high-end development properties that Dulos owned through the Fore Group, his home building company, have been foreclosed upon by banks because he never paid any of the mortgages.

Farber Dulos disappeared on May 24, 2019 after dropping the couple’s five children off at school. She was last seen driving back to her New Canaan home.

Police believe that Fotis Dulos killed her after lying in wait for his estranged wife, attacking her in the garage where police later found her blood on the walls and a car in the garage. Her Chevy Suburban was found near Waveny Park after she was reported missing. Her body has never been found.

State police in their arrest warrant allege that Dulos drove from Farmington to New Canaan that morning using a red truck that belonged to a Fore Group employee and then disposed of her body either in the New Canaan area or back in Farmington.

Using video cameras along the Merritt Parkway and other locations, state police traced the red truck from a Mountain Spring Road home that Dulos owned to New Canaan and back that morning. None of the videos, however, clearly showed Dulos driving the truck.

Dulos and his then-girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, were first arrested in early June 2019 after police recovered surveillance videos that showed a man appearing to be Dulos dropping garbage bags in trash cans along Albany Avenue in Hartford the same night that Farber Dulos disappeared.

State police recovered at least one of the bags and found a Vineyard Vines shirt that Jennifer Farber Dulos was supposedly wearing the day she disappeared. They also found blood that had her DNA on it, and allegedly DNA belonging to Dulos, warrants said.

Dulos and Troconis were both charged twice with tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution. In September 2019, Dulos was arrested for murder and Troconis for conspiracy to commit murder.

Dulos was free on a $6 million bond after the murder charge but in late January was ordered to appear in a Stamford court for a bond hearing where his bond was going to be revoked, sending him back to jail.

On the morning of the bond hearing, Dulos instead locked the door to the garage and ran a vacuum hose from the tailpipe of his car to the front seat and tried to kill himself. Farmington police pulled him from the car and revived him, but he died three days later in a New York hospital.

Troconis is currently free on a $2.1 million bond combined and is due in court again for a pre-trial hearing in October.

Another man, Kent Mawhinney, who represented Dulos initially when Gloria Farber filed a lawsuit against Dulos, also was arrested on conspiracy to commit murder charges. He is currently in prison.

Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.