May It Please the Court!
From Auto Accidents to Agent Orange:
Building a Storefront Law Practice into
America's Largest Suburban Law Firm
Leonard Rivkin
with Jeffrey Silberfeld
Carolina Academic Press
Durham, North Carolina
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Ch. 13 - Garden City: Transformation, Emergence, and Growth
In October 1975, the firm moved its Long Island office from.Freeport to 100 Garden City
Plaza in Garden City, adjacent to the very spot from which Charles Lindbergh took off on his solo
flight across the Atlantic. At the time of the move, the firm consisted of 16 attorneys, including Stu
Sherman, the managing partner; Phil Weinberg, who was concentrating on real estate and bank work;
one attorney who was helping me wrap up the Staten Island explosion case; and twelve other
attorneys who handled the firm’s general liability caseload.
We stayed in Garden City for just over ten years. During that time, we changed in ways I
never could have imagined, even in my wildest fantasies.
First, we became involved, one after another, in an incredible series of increasingly complex
cases: Franklin in 1975, Agent Orange in 1978, asbestos in 1981, and hazardous waste in 1984.
These cases transformed us from a law firm capable of litigating only routine general liability matters
to a firm capable of litigating virtually anything.
Second, we litigated complex, major cases in courtrooms not just on Long Island and in New
York City but all over the country, in nearly every state, from Maine to Florida to California and even
to Hawaii. Moreover, several of our cases, most notably Agent Orange, received massive amounts
of national publicity. As a consequence, our small town, purely local law firm emerged as a national
powerhouse.
Third, we grew, or I should say we exploded. In October 1975, when we moved to Garden
City, we had 16 attorneys; by December 1985, 16 had grown to 166. That’s a tenfold increase. Once
again, we were bursting at the seams, occupying not only most of the first and fifth floors of 100
Garden City Plaza but also most of the third floor of the 200 Garden City Plaza, directly across the
courtyard. And that was just in Garden City. By the end of 1985, we also had an office in Chicago
with 29 attorneys and another in Washington, D.C., with ten, for a total of 205 lawyers nationwide.
No wonder that in 1985 the National Law Journal dubbed us one of the ten fastest growing law firms
in the country. We had become, according to The New York Times, the largest suburban law firm
in the United States.
* * *
Transformation, emergence, and growth. These were the themes of our ten years in Garden
City. In this chapter, we describe how it all came about.
* * *
General Liability
When the firm moved to Garden City, the twelve attorneys doing general liability defense
work were responsible for approximately three thousand separate lawsuits. By Long Island
standards, both the number of attorneys and number of cases were huge. By New York City
standards, twelve attorneys was small potatoes.
Most of the general liability cases involved auto accidents, slip and fall incidents, construction
site accidents, injuries caused by defective products, and a wide variety of other matters involving
claims for personal injuries or wrongful death. But we also represented defendants in cases where
the alleged losses were purely economic, including attorneys charged with legal malpractice and
insurance brokers charged with negligently failing to secure adequate coverage.
Most of the cases were pending in state court in Nassau County, Suffolk County, Brooklyn,
and Manhattan, although we also appeared in state court in Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, and
Westchester County and in federal court in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Typically, we had three or four
men in court every day trying cases, another two or three arguing motions, and another two or three
conducting depositions. The attorneys who stayed in the office drafted pleadings, motions, and
discovery requests.
Virtually all of this business was referred to us by our four biggest insurance company clients:
Fireman’s Fund, Allstate, GEICO, and General Accident.
to chapter 14....
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