Articles Posted in Lawyers

Hello there blog readers!  This is Dave Kalabanka, Mike Bersani’s partner. I’ve hijacked his blog for today to interview him about an important award he just got: Mike has been selected as the “Personal Injury Lawyer of the Year” for the Syracuse metropolitan area. A publication called “Best Lawyers in America” bestows this honor on the lawyer with the highest overall positive peer-feedback (judges and other lawyers rate him higher than any other lawyer) for a specific practice area and geographic region. Yes, Mike was the highest ranking attorney in the field of representing injured folks in personal injury litigation for the entire Syracuse Metropolitan area.  Given this tremendous honor, I decided to take some time from Mike’s busy schedule to interview him about it:

DAVE:  Mike, first, congratulations! That’s quite an honor, and well deserved.  Did you know this was coming?

MIKE:  Thanks Dave, and no, it caught me by surprise.  There are many outstanding personal injury lawyers in the Syracuse area, including right here at Michaels Bersani Kalabanka.  I had no idea I would be selected.

It just occurred to me that after so many years of blogging, I’ve never blogged about how I ended up becoming a Syracuse New York personal injury lawyer.  That’s actually a pretty interesting question because you can ask a thousand ten-year olds what they want to be when they grown up and I can pretty much guarantee you none of them will say, “a personal injury lawyer”.  They might say “lawyer”, but I doubt any of them aspire to be the guy on the big billboard under the word “INJURED?”

Here’s my story.  Just for fun, I’m going to embed a lie in it.  At the end I’ll tell you what the lie was.  Play along and try to guess what the lie is before you get to the end.

When I finished college, I was undecided on a career, but I knew I wanted to see the world.  So I went back home to Syracuse, New York, where I worked in a textile cleaning company (Coyne Laundry) for a year to save up some money for long trip.

If you are like us, about 90% of your conscious life these days can be summed up in one word: coronavirus.  President Trump has declared a national emergency.  New York State is just about in total lock-down. Our office, just like all other offices, has been ordered physical “closed” by Governor Cuomo.  No staff is there.  Our doors are locked.  But we are not resting idle!  Read on!

Call us!

We are not at the office, but we are answering the phone!  Call us and one of our staff will pick up and put you through to your lawyer!  While our office is closed, we will be happy to “meet” with you by phone, Skype, or FaceTime, at your convenience.

Our senior lawyer, Lee Michaels, has been teaching trial practice at the Syracuse College of Law for decades.  Many of Lee’s former students keep in touch with him well into their law careers.  Lee continues to mentor many long after they have graduated.  Recently, Lee got a letter from a student, Steve Kim, who took his class nine years ago.  Here it is, abridged somewhat.  We publish it with the Kim’s permission.  At Michaels Bersani Kalabanka, we are all proud of our senior trial lawyer’s achievements not only in the courtroom but in the classroom!

Dear Lee,

I was a student in your trial practice class nine-years ago.  I write to you to thank you for teaching the single most impactful class of my entire career. Although I lost most of my law school notes, books, and outlines– I held on closely to my trial practice binder and always made sure I knew where it was.

We are proud to announce that once again all four lawyers in the Michaels Bersani Kalabanka team have been selected by other New York lawyers and New York judges for inclusion in “Best Lawyers in America”. The 2020 edition of the publication names all four partners, Lee Michaels, Jan Smolak, Mike Bersani, and Dave Kalabanka “Best Lawyers” in the Syracuse metropolitan area for representing injured plaintiffs in three categories:  Personal injury, professional malpractice and products liability. Senior partner Lee Michaels has been named in the publication for decades, and the other partners have been included since 2012.  All four lawyers have argued and tried personal injury and malpractice cases in courts all over Upstate New York, and each of them have settled or received multi-million dollar verdicts. Lee Michaels, the firm’s senior partner, says, “I am very honored that the law firm my father started decades ago is considered one of the best of the best in Upstate New York for personal injury practice.”  Dave Kalabanka, another M&S partner, responded to the news, saying, “folks who are injured through the fault of others often come to us in desperate economic circumstances, hoping we can save them from ruin. And more often than not, we do save them.  Getting justice for our clients is its own best reward.  But this continued recognition from our peers is great to have.”  M&S partner Jan Smolak noted that “being top-ranked in a publication like Best Lawyers is not only good for us, it’s good for our clients.  Our reputation breeds more success for our clients because the lawyers and insurance adjusters we are up against can see that we are tough and successful, and they are thus more likely to want to settle with us for larger amounts so as to avoid trial”. The American Lawyer magazine describes the Best Lawyers publication as “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.”  All four lawyers at Michaels Bersani Kalabanka are also named in “Super Lawyers”, another prestigious directory of top lawyers.

Mike Bersani

Email me at: bersani@mbk-law.com