Alan M. Shapey, Esq.

In 2015, Alan M. Shapey successfully conducted three complex and difficult jury trials on behalf of clients of the Lipsig Law firm.

In a jury trial in Bronx County Supreme Court, Alan Shapey represented a young man who dropped his cell phone on the tracks of the subway and climbed down to retrieve it. As he tried to climb back up onto the platform, the train approached and entered the station. Unfortunately, our client was unable to climb up in time, and the subway train struck him, resulting in the amputation of both of his legs.

Alan Shapey was successful in proving to the trial jury that the subway train operator was partially at fault since the operator had sufficient time and distance to stop the train before striking our client’s body. The jury returned a verdict for the Lipsig Law firm’s client and awarded damages for his injuries that totaled more than $8,000,000.

In lengthy trial in Suffolk County, a New York City suburb, the issue for the jury was the amount of damages that the Lipsig Law firm client, a construction worker, suffered due to a fall from a defective scaffold several years earlier. Alan Shapey had to prove to the jury that our client’s injury, a lumbar disc herniation that required surgery over 3 years later, was caused by the fall. Alan Shapey presented testimony from treating doctors, including an orthopedic surgeon, a radiologist and a spinal surgeon, as well as an expert economist. The jurors in Suffolk County returned a verdict over $6,000,000 for our Lipsig Law firm client. When legal interest is added to the verdict, the total amount recovered is over $8,000,000. Adding to the difficulty of this trial was the fact that investigators had taken 14 hours of video surveillance of our client and these videos were played to the jury by the defense attorneys.

In a recent trial in Brooklyn, Alan Shapey was able to prove to a jury that a new condo building developer was partially responsible for damages suffered by our Lipsig Law firm client. Our client, who was at a party in the building, climbed onto a parapet wall surrounding the roof of a residential building in Williamsburg and then fell 70 feet into an alley alongside the roof.

The new building’s developer had divided the roof into separate recreational areas (with barbeques, electricity and water) that were sold as condos and included a large common area for use by the condominium owners and their guests. The roof was zoned for recreational purposes. Alan Shapey, working with experts in building construction, design and safety regulations, identified the NYC Building Code regulation that required ten-foot wire fences on roofs used for recreational purposes, not the 3 ½ foot high parapet wall that the developer provided. The jury in Brooklyn agreed that the developer was negligent for not complying with the applicable Building Code rule by failing to build the ten-foot fence around the roof and it found that the developer was 60% at fault for the fall incident. The jury returned a verdict of $43,000,000 in our client’s favor.

Awards & Recognition

Mr. Shapey has been selected to Super Lawyers, joining the prestigious community of top-rated attorneys, every year since 2008. As a long-time recipient of the honor, he was chosen through a rigorous process of independent research and evaluations from his peers in the legal community.

• Super Lawyers (2008 – 2017)
• Trial Lawyers Care – complimentary legal services to victims of September 11

A committed member of the New York community, Mr. Shapey was recognized by Trial Lawyers Care for his donation of free legal services to victims and families affected by the events of September 11, 2001. Trial Lawyers Care, an initiative of the American Association for Justice, is a non-profit established to offer legal counsel, free of charge, to families seeking compensation through the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.

In 2015, Lipsig, Shapey, Manus & Moverman was inducted into the New York Law Journal Verdicts Hall of Fame. The honor recognized our firm’s work representing a pedestrian injured in a motor vehicle accident, a case in which Mr. Shapey won our client a $20 million judgment. The award was ranked by legal research firm VerdictSearch as the 5th largest ruling in a New York car accident-related case between 2010 and 2015.

Bar Admissions:

• New York, 1980
• U.S. Court of Appeals 2d Circuit, 1981
• U.S. District Court Southern District of New York, 1980
• U.S. District Court Eastern District of New York, 1980

Education:

• New York Law School, New York, NY

Recent Case Results

• $50 MILLION – child with brain injuries due to lead poisoning
• $43 MILLION – man fell off of the roof of a building
• $42 MILLION – against The City of New York for failure to install a traffic signal
• $20 MILLION – woman struck by a New York City Transit Authority bus
• $20 MILLION – construction worker injured in a trench
• $12.7 MILLION – child with brain injuries due to lead poisoning
• $10 MILLION – man struck by a New York City Transit Authority train
• $10 MILLION – woman killed by a poorly designed seat belt
• $9.5 MILLION – woman killed by a poorly designed seat belt
• $9.3 MILLION – man struck by a New York City Transit Authority train
• $7.7 MILLION – woman struck by a taxi that skidded on an icy street
• $6 MILLION – man struck by a City-owned vehicle while crossing a street
• $4.25 MILLION – woman injured after slip and fall on icy ramp

Recent Press Mentions

January 24, 2018 – Alan M. Shapey Fights For Victims Of Taxi Accidents & Auto Accidents In New York City