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Since its founding in 1936, Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder has, with good reason, been recognized as one of the leading trial firms in the country.
The firm has served as an advocate for individuals and families injured by the medical profession, powerful organizations and large corporations throughout its 78 years in practice; and through its efforts, Koskoff has grown to where it now has multiple offices in Connecticut, as well as an unprecedented track record of personal injury verdicts.
Of the top ten personal injury verdicts in Connecticut, Koskoff lawyers have won six, including the largest medical malpractice judgment in state history—a $58.6 million jury award for a family whose son developed severe cerebral palsy after a delayed caesarean section.
In March 2013, the firm also secured the largest non-medical malpractice personal injury verdict in Connecticut history, when partner Antonio Ponvert won a $41.7 million award for a girl who contracted tick-borne encephalitis while on a school trip in China.
Reflecting on this success, senior partner Michael Koskoff—whose father, legendary trial lawyer Theodore I. Koskoff, founded the firm—observes, “My father used to say, ‘Before you can be a genius in the courtroom, you have to be a drudge in the office,’ and if there’s one defining trait for this firm, it would be our overall dedication to our clients; it truly sets us apart.”
As part of its client commitment, the firm takes nearly all of its cases on a contingent fee basis, where the firm does not collect payment until it wins a judgment. Joshua Koskoff, who represents the third generation of Koskoffs at the firm, notes that this approach is inexorably tied to the firm’s origins as a family firm.
“While we have been in practice for going on eight decades, that feeling of family remains, both in how we interact with one another and in how we treat clients,” Josh Koskoff says. “When clients enter our firm, every lawyer and staff person in the office is committed to seeing that they are taken care of, not just the attorneys working on their case.”
“Our firm culture is one of caring, collaboration and cooperation,” adds managing partner Jim Horwitz. “We work together to develop the themes and strategies for handling cases, and it’s because of our emphasis on teamwork that we continue to succeed in some of the most challenging medical malpractice, products liability, catastrophic personal injury, and civil rights cases in the country.”
Recently, Josh Koskoff and partner Sean McElligott achieved an $11.2 million recovery in a medical malpractice case where the wrong medication was administered in the ER, leaving the patient in a permanent vegetative state. The firm also obtained a $12.3 million jury award in September 2014 for the family of a young girl who drowned in the indoor pool at Waterbury’s Boys and Girls Club in 2008. Among its recent high-profile cases, the firm served on the team suing over the death of singer-songwriter Michael Jackson in California.
“When we take on cases involving such profound injuries we know that it’s very likely they will be tried before a jury and that the cases will require considerable resources to get justice for our clients,” says Kathleen Nastri, who along with Bill Bloss, represented the family of the young girl who drowned. “It’s therefore very reassuring to know that we’re backed by a firm with both the economic and intellectual resources to fight these battles.”
Indeed, it’s because of these resources that the firm was able to make history in 2010, when its client, the family of a man who died of mouth cancer at age 42, won the first and only wrongful death settlement on record from a chewing tobacco company.
“Having practiced at this firm for almost 30 years now, I can say that it’s truly an extraordinary place to work,” Horwitz observes. “Everyone here is committed to making a difference, and it’s rewarding to see how that idealism has not diminished in the least in all the time I’ve been working here.”