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. 14 - Chicago and Washington
Warren Radler
After graduating from Cornell Law School in 1960, Warren Radler drove a beat up old
Plymouth to Washington D.C., where he worked in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of
Justice. For two years, he second seated voting rights cases in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.
In 1962, Warren moved to Buffalo, where he went to work as a trial lawyer for Saperston,
McNaughan&Saperston, later known as Saperston, Day&Radler. He stayed at Saperston until
1978, ultimately becoming the firm’s managing partner.
Early in his career, Warren tried as many as 25 cases per year. He liked to characterize these
cases as "rear enders" involving "bump and bruise" injuries. The trials generally lasted no more than
three days. Later, he tried more complex tort and commercial matters.
One of Saperston’s biggest clients was Fireman’s Fund, and Warren handled a lot of the
Fireman’s Fund work. In 1971, the Buffalo office of Fireman’s Fund asked Warren to defend a
Fireman’s Fund policyholder in a products liability case pending in state court in Manhattan. After
accepting the assignment, Warren needed to find a lawyer in the New York City metropolitan area
to act as his local counsel. He called the New York City office of Fireman’s Fund for a
recommendation. The person he spoke to suggested Len Rivkin. Warren and I didn’t know each
other at the time, and he had never heard of me. Nevertheless, he gave me a call, told me what he
was looking for, and asked to meet me.
Two days later, Warren flew to New York. We met for two hours in a conference room at
LaGuardia Airport. Warren and I hit it off immediately, probably because of our similar experiences
working for insurance companies and trying negligence lawsuits. We also discovered that Fireman’s
Fund was not our only common client. We both represented Dow Chemical. At the time, I was
defending the Staten Island explosion case, and Warren was defending a handful of products liability
matters.
As we wrapped up our meeting, Warren asked ff1 was interested in being his local counsel.
Never one to turn down new business, I quickly agreed. I assigned the case to a young attorney m
my office, who ended up doing most of the work.
Years later, Warren told me that at our first meeting he found me to be "a Long Island kind
of guy." I wasn’t sure whether that was a compliment or an insult.
* * *
Dole v. Dow
In 1972, Warren represented Dow in a landmark products liability action entitled Dole v. Dow
Chemical. In that case, an employee died from exposure to fumes while on the job. The employee’s
widow sued Dow, which had manufactured the chemical causing the fumes. Dow commenced a
third-party action for contribution against the deceased’s employer, charging that the employer’s
negligence was the cause of death. Existing law did not permit a suit for contribution under those
circumstances. Nevertheless, Warren convinced Dow to pursue the claim in the hope of making new
law.
The case went all the way up to the New York State Court of Appeals. Judge Jasen, one of
the judges on the Court, was from Buffalo and knew Warren quite well. Each side was allotted 20
minutes for oral argument. Warren went first. After twenty minutes, he said, "Well, I see my time
is up. "Judge Jasen responded, "No, Mr. Radler, please continue. We’re very interested." Warren
argued for another 40 minutes. Several months later, the Court decided the case in Dow’s favor.
Dole v. Dow was hugely signillcant, in that it essentially created the right of contribution
among joint tortfeasors in New York and was the birth of the doctrine of comparative negligence.
As a result of the Dole decision, Warren became somewhat of a celebrity in New York tort
circles, lecturing all over the state on the impact of the Court’s ruling. In addition, Dow rewarded
Warren for his good work on the case by sending him more and more business.
* * *
to chapter 15....
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