When Richard Silver, senior partner of Stamford-based Silver Golub & Teitell, founded his medical malpractice, personal injury, product liability and complex civil litigation firm 35 years ago, he had a very straightforward goal. “I wanted to use my talents as a trial attorney to help people get justice in the courtroom.”
He takes deep pride in having kept his promise by successfully litigating on behalf of numerous families and individuals whose loved ones either died or were seriously harmed as a result of medical malpractice or injury. In so doing, he and his firm in a series of landmark cases that have had a significant impact in state and national law, were instrumental in calling attention to the need for hospitals and other health care institutions to scrutinize the standards of care of their patients.
The first of these significant malpractice judgments, Pisel vs. Stamford Hospital, occurred just two years after the firm opened its doors for business. In a 5-0 ruling, the Connecticut State Supreme Court sustained the largest malpractice award ever made in Connecticut at that time ””$3.6 million ”” for “having violated the standard of due care” in the treatment of Carol Ann Pisel. The court decision reverberated far beyond Connecticut as was underscored by a major article in The New York Times, “Malpractice Court Ruling Raises Issues,” that was published April 27, 1980.
Silver notes that the case was transformative. “Back in 1980, society looked at malpractice differently. Doctors were given the benefit of the doubt. This case helped call attention for the need of physicians to adhere to standards and paved the way to improve the practice of medicine.”
A number of other significant malpractice suits won by Silver”™s firm would further advance the argument for improved oversight of the practice of medicine. Among them were multimillion-dollar settlements for cases involving a misdiagnosis that resulted in the brain damage of an infant; permanent brain damage of a woman as a result of an anesthesiologist”™s failure to properly monitor vital signs during the Cesarean section delivery of her first child; a 35-year-old woman with three children who sustained brain damage during a routine tubal ligation procedure and a woman who claimed that her doctor failed to warn her that she had an increased risk of developing ovarian cancer.
In 2008, Silver, together with his partner, Angelo Ziotas, obtained the largest jury verdict at that time in a medical malpractice action in Connecticut history when a Stamford jury awarded his clients $38.5 million to compensate a young boy who suffered severe neurological injuries during childbirth.
In addition to raising awareness for medical malpractice issues through successful representation of clients in the courtroom, Silver is using academia as part of his ongoing mission to improve communications between doctor and patient, a topic he has frequently lectured about. His unique appointment as a malpractice attorney to the advisory board of Quinnipiac University”™s new Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine is part of the university”™s efforts to bring its law and medical schools closer together to help achieve the long-term goal of forging better relationships between physicians and attorneys.
The firm captured equally big litigation headlines in other practice areas. Silver was lead counsel in the Mianus River Bridge collapse case and his partner, David Golub, served as lead private counsel for the state of Connecticut against the tobacco industry. Connecticut”™s leadership role in the nationwide tobacco litigation was recognized by the special panel comprised of former attorneys general. It concluded that the contribution of the state”™s legal team to the settlement ranked among the top five of all 50 states and 7 other entities that were involved. Bottom line? Connecticut stands to recover about $4 billion from the cigarette manufacturers.
Given the firm”™s impressive track record, it comes as no surprise that the accolades and recognition by prestigious professional organizations have been plentiful. It is the only Connecticut law firm with four or more lawyers on the Super Lawyers New England 2012 “Top 100” list.
But, the praise that Silver loves most to share with his team and visitors are letters of thanks displayed on his office wall that he has received from children who were affected by the cases his firm won on behalf of them and their families. He is especially fond of a poem that includes a handprint of the young writer. The poem concludes: “So here”™s a handprint just so you can recall, exactly at age 4 how my fingers looked when I was very small.” For Silver, this heartfelt expression of a hopeful future by a child epitomizes what getting justice is all about.
The Winners Circle profiles attorneys and female entrepreneurs who have entered the arena and won.
