Judge Vatti received his B.A. from Columbia University in 1989 and his J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1992.  While in law school, he served as a Notes and Comments Editor of the Connecticut Journal of International Law.  He is also a past President of the UConn Law School Alumni Association.

After graduating from law school, Judge Vatti was an associate (1992-1999) and partner (2000-2001) at the Bridgeport, Connecticut firm of Zeldes, Needle & Cooper, P.C. where he practiced in the areas of commercial, employment and tort litigation in state and federal courts.  After a two-year period as a sole practitioner in Shelton, Connecticut from 2001-2003, Judge Vatti joined the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut in 2004 as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division.  From 2004 to 2021, he conducted investigations and prosecutions of violent crime matters and interstate drug-trafficking organizations and, from June 2013 to 2021, he served as Chief of the office’s Violent Crime and Narcotics Unit.  During his tenure as Chief of that unit, he oversaw the development and implementation of the Career Pathways Collaborative, a partnership between the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the non-profit Justice Education Center, in which identified at-risk youth in New Haven and other Connecticut cities were given the opportunity to earn vocational and technical certifications to foster career development.  In 2018, the Department of Justice recognized Career Pathways as its most innovative crime prevention program.

Judge Vatti was sworn in as a United States Magistrate Judge on March 22, 2021.