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. 15 - EAB Plaza
On a brisk wintry morning in February of 1985, my wife Lenore and I drove to EAB Plaza,
the future site of the firm’s Long Island office. Advertised as the most prestigious business address
on Long Island, EAB Plaza was a spectacular new office complex located on Hempstead Turnpike
in Uniondale which consisted of two 15 story glass towers connected by an enormous glass atrium.
Directly in front of the building was an outdoor skating rink. The complex also included a multilevel
parking garage, acres of outdoor park, and a heliport. Although we were still in the process of
ironing out the details, the firm had just reached an agreement in principle with the owner of the
building to lease three entire floors, a total of 94,000 square feet, for ten years. Notwithstanding our
eagerness to relocate, the move from the Garden City office was still more than one year away.
At the time, Lenore was in the final stages of her battle with cancer. We both knew that she
would not live to see the firm move into its new quarters. Nevertheless, Lenore refused to let her
deteriorating condition dampen her spirits. When I told her that morning that I planned on visiting
the new building, she insisted on going with me and could barely contain her excitement.
We entered one of the towers and rode up in the elevator to the eleventh floor, one of the
three floors that the firm would ultimately occupy. All morning, Lenore and I had been having an
animated conversation about the new building and the upcoming move. The elevator doors opened,
we stepped gingerly out onto the landing, and the conversation stopped. We were both overwhelmed
by what we saw. The entire floor, more than 30,000 square feet, was nothing more than a glass
enclosed concrete and steel shell, an open area the size of a football field. There were no walls, no
subdivisions. But for the bank of elevators in the middle of the building, we had unobstructed views
in every direction.
Hand in hand, Lenore and I walked slowly around the huge expanse of space, from one end
to the other. Then we stopped and looked at each other. Lenore spoke first.
"I hope the people responsible for turning this place into a law office know what they’re
doing."
"You’re telling me," I replied.
"Do you really have enough lawyers to fill this entire floor?"
"This floor and most of two others."
"I can’t believe that you’ve come so far, from the back of Paul Leff’s insurance brokerage
office to this place."
"To tell you the truth," I said, "I can hardly believe it myself"
Lenore died that May. The firm moved into the new building one year later, in April of 1986.
I felt great joy on the day of the move but also great sadness. Great joy, because of our glamorous
and prestigious new surroundings. Great sadness, because Lenore, who had been with me from the
very beginning, through good times and bad, wasn’t there to share my most recent good fortune.
A Crowning Moment
The move to EAB Plaza was a crowning moment for Rivkin, Radler, Dunne & Bayh.
Recently acclaimed as one of the ten fastest growing law firms in the United States, the firm had a
glittering roster of partners, attorneys with impeccable state and national reputations. We had
litigated some of the most complex and controversial cases in the country. Our client list included
Fortune 500 corporations and major national and international insurance companies. Our attorneys
had appeared in court in almost every state from Maine to Florida to California to Hawaii. We had
recently opened elegant new offices in Chicago and Washington, two important legal meccas. All
that was missing was a home office on Long Island that befit a firm of our stature, a home office
worthy of housing Long Island’s preeminent law firm. The very first time I visited EAB Plaza, even
though it was still under construction and more than two years from completion, I knew that I had
found the perfect building and the perfect location, just what the firm was looking for.
We began searching for new quarters in 1984. Early in 1985, after inspecting buildings all
over Nassau County, we chose EAB Plaza. This particular decision was a no-brainer. It was by far
the most impressive new office building on Long Island. It was conveniently located. And because
of the firm’s size and growing stature, the owners of EAB Plaza were quite eager to have us.
We formed a move committee, headed by John Dunne. We hired an architect to design our
office space, which included an internal spiral staircase connecting all three floors, and a general
contractor to oversee the construction. The entire process of negotiating the lease and designing and
constructing the office space lasted more than one year. The week before the move, the attorneys
and support staff packed all of their books, papers, and files into cardboard boxes. A moving
company completed the move over one weekend.
Immediately after the move, office morale was at an all time high. Our new quarters were first
class all the way, as impressive as any law office I had ever seen, spacious and efficiently designed.
Each practice unit occupied its own area with plenty of room for expansion. We had a state of the
art library.
The views were fabulous. My tenth floor office faced westward toward the New York City
skyline. Many evenings I had the pleasure of witnessing spectacular sunsets. The view to the south
overlooked the tree-lined Meadowbrook Parkway, the route to Jones Beach. On a clear summer day,
if you used a pair of high powered binoculars and your imagination, you could actually catch a
glimpse of the surf
To show off our new offices, we threw a gala office reception in the fall after the move.
Hundreds of guests attended, including judges, attorneys, law professors, clients, family, friends, and
neighbors. The guests toured all three of our floors. A string quartet stationed near the spiral
staircase provided the entertainment.
* * *
The firm continued to expand in size after the move to EAB, reaching a high of 251 attorneys
in 1988. In addition, the firm opened offices in Los Angeles in 1986, and
Newark in 1994. The Los Angeles office moved to Santa Rosa, California, in 1990.
* * *
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