Weitz & Luxenberg P.C.
Weitz & Luxenberg P.C. is a large personal injury and medical malpractice law firm headquartered in New York, specializing in asbestos litigation. Overall, the firm has won over $6.5 billion for its clients. The firm also specializes in medical malpractice, consumer protection and environmental protection litigation. Erin Brockovich, the woman made famous by Julia Robert's portrayal of her in the movie Erin Brockovich, works with the firm on environmental cases as of 2008.
Weitz & Luxenberg is the largest law firm of its kind in New York state. Overall, the firm has won over $6.5 billion from lawsuits. The firm has 84 associate lawyers and 3 partners, with offices in Los Angeles, New York City, and Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The firm was founded in 1986 by Perry Weitz and Arthur Luxenberg.
The firm’s specialty is suing companies that made asbestos or used asbestos products. For example, in 2011, the firm won a verdict against Goodyear Tire. The lawsuit claimed that two Goodyear employees, who were smokers, were exposed to asbestos while working at Goodyear. The verdict was $22 million.
Perry Weitz’s first job was at Morris Eisen, P.C., a law firm. In the 1990s, seven attorneys, investigators and office workers from Morris Eisen were convicted for a variety of crimes all centered around faking evidence. The defendants all appealed, and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions.
In confirming the convictions, the court wrote:
The methods by which the frauds were accomplished included pressuring accident witnesses to testify falsely, paying individuals to testify falsely that they had witnessed accidents, paying unfavorable witnesses not to testify, and creating false photographs, documents, and physical evidence of accidents for use before and during trial.
It should be noted that Perry Weitz was never charged or convicted. Morris Eisen, Weitz’s father-in-law, served three years in prison.
In Perry Weitz’s bio on the firm’s website, the firm writes: “It can cause even the most ruthless corporate CEO to tug nervously at his shirt collar and gulp hard when told that squaring off against him in court will be the brawny, knock-out-king of a law firm co-founded in 1986 by super attorney Perry Weitz, Esq.”
In a 2002 article by The New York Times, “A Surge in Asbestos Suits, Many by Healthy Plaintiffs,” a law professor at Yeshiva University, Lester Brickman, said, "Sick people with legitimate claims represent a tiny fraction of the claims being brought.” In response, Weitz was quoted in the article as saying, "Juries throughout the United States have said that these people deserve compensation . . . You really have to have faith in the jury system."
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