Dana Bucin

Dana Bucin is an award-winning Immigration/ International attorney and partner at Harris Beach Murtha, a 250+ attorney law firm dating back to 1856, with offices in 16 locations throughout CT, MA, NY, NJ, and DC.  As a leader of the Hartford immigration team, Dana represents businesses and individual clients on a wide range of immigration matters, making her practice one of the most comprehensive in the State of CT, encompassing business and employment-based, family-based, humanitarian-based, and removal defense immigration matters. Since 2018, Dana has served as the Honorary Consul of Romania to Connecticut, a diplomatic appointment that enables her to facilitate various cross-border educational, business, medical, legal, military, and cultural exchanges between Connecticut and Romania.

Dana regularly provides multilingual legal representation in English, Spanish, French, and Romanian. She also has a basic knowledge of Italian, German, Hungarian, and Latin. She is frequently quoted by publications such as Bloomberg Businessweek and the Hartford Business Journal on immigration law topics. She appears regularly on TV shows in English, Spanish, and Romanian as an expert on immigration matters.

In addition to her business immigration focus, Dana handles a variety of cases to assist immigrants and refugees with humanitarian legal needs and to advocate for immigrants' rights at the state and federal levels. Examples include:

  • Representing several immigrants from various countries in applying for asylum based on political, religious, and ethnic persecution, including 70 Afghan nationals applying for emergency Humanitarian Parole after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

  • Traveling to the Tijuana – San Diego border checkpoint in April 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine to assist more than 2,000 Ukrainian refugees with entering the US on humanitarian parole.

  • Founder of the “Connecticut for Ukraine” Refugee Matching Program, which matched over 100 Ukrainian refugees to Connecticut sponsors.

  • As Honorary Consul of Romania to Connecticut, running diplomatic programs that assisted the reunification of families separated at the border (Roma populations), coordinating assistance for vulnerable Romanian citizens in Connecticut, and assisting in the transfer of Ukrainian refugees from Romania to Connecticut.

  • Establishing cross-border military collaboration between the CT National Guard and the Romanian Army (a NATO ally bordering Ukraine).

  • Pro-bono and low-bono services to CT service members and veterans applying for immigration benefits, including Military Parole in Place.

  • Assisted ACLU CT’s class action lawsuit, which restored F-1 student status to 53 international students in Connecticut.

  • Advocating for pro-immigrant bills at the state and federal levels and offering testimony in support of state bills protecting the rights of CT immigrants.

For her excellence in the legal profession, Dana has been recognized as the Attorney of the Year in Connecticut by the CT Law Tribune in 2019, the highest recognition for any attorney in the State of Connecticut, and as a “Distinguished Leader” by the New England Legal Awards in 2023. Most recently, in September 2025, Dana was inducted into the Immigrant Heritage Hall of Fame, which honors individuals and institutions who exemplify the best of their immigrant heritage and who have made outstanding contributions to the cultural, economic, and civic development of the United States.

In September 2024, Dana was awarded the Emblem of Honor of the Romanian Defense Staff, 4-star category, which is the highest recognition bestowed upon a civilian for establishing cross-border military exchanges between the Connecticut National Guard and the Romanian Army (a NATO ally) and was designated Honorary Citizen of Reghin, Romania (her birth town) by the Municipal City Council in July 2024.  In December 2023, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (CT) presented Dana with a “Certificate of Special Recognition” for her steadfast support of Ukraine and contributions to the CT economy. Dana is frequently listed among Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America, is rated as “AV Preeminent” and was designated 40 under Forty by several CT publications, including the CT Magazine and the Hartford Business Journal, and is the recipient of the annual social justice award by the United Action of Connecticut and an Annual Immigrant Award recipient by CIRC (CT Immigrant & Refugee Coalition).

Born and raised in Transylvania, Romania, Dana attended Ohio Wesleyan University on an F-1 student visa, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, University & Departmental Honors in May 2002, majoring in International Business, Politics & Government, and Romance Languages & Literatures (self-declared), with a minor in International Studies, and with a summer fellowship in Venezuela.  She then pursued law school and earned a Juris Doctor degree, with an International Law concentration, from Boston University School of Law in May 2005, including a semester abroad at Jean Moulin Lyon III in France, where she studied EU & Comparative Law. 

Dana is a Board member of the CT Immigrant & Refugee Coalition (CIRC) and is active in many civic associations in CT, including the Connecticut Bar Association’s Rule of Law Committee.  She is a frequent speaker on immigration issues, the need for comprehensive immigration reform, and immigrant rights as the test case for upholding democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

Dana has been married to her husband, Erick, for 20 years, and they have three children together: Nadia, Eliza, and Gabriel, who sometimes accompany their mom to pro-immigrant rallies and legal clinics.