Tom Gill grew up in West Hartford, Connecticut and graduated from Yale, majoring in History, the Arts and Letters; and Columbia Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review. Between college and law school, he served on destroyers and swift boats in the U.S. Navy. After law school, he clerked for a year on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and then joined the law firm of Day, Berry & Howard in Hartford, Connecticut. Mr. Gill moved to Boston in 1982 to help open a new office for the firm, and became managing partner there, remaining with the firm until his retirement. While in Hartford, Mr. Gill served on the boards of the Hartford and Connecticut Architecture Conservancies and as chairman of the board of the Hartford YMCA. Mr. Gill is a director of the Boston Lyric Opera and of Beacon Hill Seminars.