Steven E. Pegalis, Member of Pegalis & Erickson, LLC

Senior, Partner, Mr. Steven E. Pegalis, 1972 - 2010

Steven E. Pegalis is a medical malpractice trial lawyer and senior partner of Pegalis & Erickson, LLC. He is the founding member of his own firm since 1972. He has achieved the distinction of winning precedent-setting jury verdicts. In 1998 he won the highest medical malpractice verdict for his client, a brain injured child against New York City Health and Hospital Corp. in the amount of $116 million. At the time, it was the second highest malpractice verdict in the country. In 2004 he won a $111.7 million verdict for a brain injured child which was at the time the highest medical malpractice verdict in both Nassau and Suffolk Counties. At the time, it was also the fourth highest malpractice verdict in the State and the fifth highest nationally. In 2001, he won a $35 million verdict for another brain injured child. That verdict was the seventh highest medical malpractice jury verdict for the year.
What Mr. Pegalis is most proud of is not individual “record” verdicts but rather that he and the members of his firm have consistently over so many years won substantial verdicts and settlements for so many clients. For each client, their case is so important to them, which makes it very gratifying to have helped so many to achieve justice.
On December 13, 2007, the New York Law School honored Mr. Pegalis for his lifetime commitment of taking on the problems of his clients as his own and then effectively pursuing their rights with a passion that has been successful for so many for so many years. Mr. Pegalis was gratified that so many of his clients attended the Gala honor.
In 2003, he was honored by the Stanley Lamm Institute for Child Neurology and Occupational Medicine and received their Community Service Award. This reflected a consistent commitment to help handicapped children. Mr. Pegalis’ commitment in community service has focused on children with disabilities and patient safety.
Mr. Pegalis is the author of American Law of Medical Malpractice, Vols. I, II and III now in its 3rd edition. In addition to being an Adjunct Professor of Law at New York Law School, he is also a member of the Board of Trustees of New York Law School.
He is an advocate of the American Board of Trial Advocacy. He is a member of the American Association for Justice, the National Board of Trial Advocacy and the New York State Trial Lawyers Association. He is an Associate in Law of the American College of Legal Medicine and is AV rated from Martindale-Hubbell which means he has reached the height of his professional excellence. Finally, he has been voted as one of the Best Lawyers® in New York and one of New York’s Super Lawyers.
He is admitted to practice in New York, the U.S. Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit, and the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York. He holds a J.D. and a LLB degree from New York Law School, and is a graduate of Queens College of the City of New York.