Normally men at a certain age begin to realize their retirement plans but there is one attorney who decided to go against the norm and open a second law firm. For one of the nation's best known personal injury lawyers, this 87 year old with characteristic nerve and verve was accompanied by several guards as he marched into his longtime office a couple of months ago. A feud with his partners earlier caused him to pull his name from the door and empty out his desk all while his men stood sentry.
When it comes to the day to day trials in their firm, these are dealt with by his new partner and protege who is a lady lawyer who once worked as an assistant Queens district attorney as he himself seldom participates in courtrooms today. Still he was able to win huge settlements in cases that you never thought he would emerge victorious in because of his passion for perfection, enormous ambition, endless energy, and gift for showbiz glitz.
When it comes to his reputation, he is known as The Equalizer who got 0,000 for the family of a heart attack victim after he successfully convinced a judge that the victim was scared to death by the car that drove onto his lawn. After a guest was bitten by a shark, he put the responsibility on an Acapulco hotel. What he argued was that there was failure on the part of the hotel to issue warnings that disposing their garbage into the waters may attract sharks.
He is rather boastful when it comes to how he led New York City to employ 120 full time personal injury lawyers and shell out about 5 million in settlement payments for this year alone. When it comes to lawyers in tort or personal injury law, like him all of them get a contingency fee equivalent to a third of final awards. People who are sneered upon by this lawyer are those who say that increased taxes and insurance rates are the fault of the aggressive personal injury lawyers.
Emotion is a strong suit for this lawyer as he engages in a sad story about how some poor devil will be facing a life behind bars for something that was not under his control doubly facing confinement for he has been paralyzed by the ordeal. You could say that he has the finesse of a symphony conductor in handling a jury. The key to winning is to entertain the jury.
Research played a huge role in his victories. Every time he tries a case, he is obsessed with not being made to look like a fool for overlooking things. In this line of work, not only has this lawyer found himself in hair raising situations but also on the covers of Time Magazine and The Wall Street Journal.
There is no place for modesty whenever he speaks of his practice or himself. In trying cases, lawyers need some kind of vanity he says. Some vanity could work decently with confidence and respect. Details of his personal and professional life are overseen by the 33 year old woman adopted by him and his wife. For his old partners, this owner of a Mexican restaurant and ever present assistant was the reason for splitting them up. He says she merely helped open his eyes.
About 6 years old was he when his Ukrainian family immigrated to New York, when he graduated Brooklyn Law School in 1929 the good legal work was all entrusted to the politically connected Irish firms. Other than minor crimes, aspiring Jewish attorneys like him only dealt with several personal injury cases.