Contact Kelner & Kelner to speak to personal injury lawyer Robert S. Kelner or one of our other New York attorneys.
Every member of the Kelner & Kelner team contributes unique strengths and skills to the firm while striving to serve as a high-quality personal injury lawyer for New York residents and others who come to us with serious injuries that entitle them to restitution. Our team is committed to the ideals of justice and accountability.
Gail S. Kelner concentrates in construction accident litigation and catastrophic injury cases.
She has been involved in dozens of cases that have resulted in recoveries of over $1,000,000. Many of these have been construction accident injury cases. Significant among them have been a $9,000,000 recovery for a worker who fell from a forklift at the American Airlines Terminal. She was recently involved in a $10,400,000 verdict against the City of New York with Robert Kelner in a case involving the collapse of a sidewalk bridge in Bronx, New York. Other multi-million dollar recoveries in her cases have included the death of a bridge painter when a box lift truck overturned, a ladder collapse necessitating the amputation of an electrician's leg, a construction worker seriously injured when a scissor lift overturned and a window washer whose ladder collapsed.
She has represented construction workers in many trades, including iron workers, electricians, laborers, plumbers, roofers, masons, carpenters, building superintendents and window cleaners. She has won summary judgment in many of these cases, both at the trial and appellate levels. One of her iron worker clients obtained recoveries of over $1,000,000 in two different accident cases. She has also been involved in paralysis and brain injury cases resulting from other types of accident cases. For example, she handled a case resulting in a $9,000,000 recovery for a 64 year old man severely injured in an auto accident.
She is a co-author with her husband, Robert Kelner of the Trial Practice column in the New York Law Journal and has written extensively on many issues in personal injury trial practice. All of these columns have addressed developments in New York law in the field of personal injury litigation. She has lectured for the New York State Bar Association as well as the New York County Lawyers Association and the New York State Trial Lawyers Association in the areas of construction site litigation and other areas of personal injury litigation. She has also addressed the court attorneys in the Appellate Division, First Department on aspects of the New York Labor Law in construction accident cases.
She received her J.D. degree from New York University School of Law in 1973 and a B.A. from Tufts University in 1970 (Phi Beta Kappa). She is admitted to the New York State Bar and the Federal District Courts in both the Southern and Eastern Districts. She has argued appellate cases before the Appellate Division, First Department, the Appellate Division, Second Department, and the New York State Court of Appeals.
Joshua D. Kelner graduated cum laude from Williams College in 2001 and cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2004. While in law school, he was Articles Editor for the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, and a finalist in the Ames Moot Court Competition. In college, he was President of the Williams College debate team.
He has been associated with Kelner & Kelner since 2005, during which time he has concentrated his practice on the trial preparation of complex personal injury cases and on appellate advocacy. He has conducted depositions, second seated trials, and argued numerous motions before the courts. He recently successfully argued before the Appellate Division, Second Department. He was previously associated with the law firm of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, LLP, during which time he focused on federal litigation and white collar criminal defense.
He is the author of The Anatomy of an Image: Unpacking the Case for Tort Reform, which was published in the University of Dayton Law Review in 2006. He is a member of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association and the New York State Bar Association.
Mr. Burke joined the firm in 2004 with 20 years experience as a trial lawyer concentrating his practice in the fields of medical malpractice and personal injury. Among his many seven figure verdicts and settlements are cases that have been featured prominently in the news media and legal journals.
Some of Mr. Burke's recent verdicts include a: $5.1 million dollar award in Kings County Supreme Court to a Sanitation worker who suffered knee and back injuries; $3 million award by a Westchester County Supreme Court jury to the estate of a 30 year old single woman in a delay in diagnosis of anal carcinoma. In 2004 Mr. Burke obtained a verdict of $2.8 million dollars for a bank employee with disabling back injuries that was reported by the New York Law Journal as one of the highest verdicts in the State that year for a slip and fall case.
Mr. Burke is a frequent lecturer for the New York County Lawyers Association and has also lectured before the New York State Bar Association.
Active in local affairs, Mr. Burke is a member of the Village of Rockville Centre Volunteer Fire Department and has also served on the local School Board and as Chairman of the local Zoning Board.
He is a member of the New York State Bar Association and New York State Trial Lawyers Association. He has been accorded the highest possible rating of AV by Martindale-Hubbell's® peer review process.
Mr. Burke is admitted to practice law in New York State Courts, The United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York as well as the United States Supreme Court.
Brian P. Hurley has been with Kelner and Kelner since 1993 handling general negligence and litigation matters.
While maintaining a full case load of all of the types of claims handled by the Firm, he has had particular experience in products liability, lead poisoning and Labor Law suits. Brian has obtained significant recoveries in all manner of actions, including automobile collisions, municipal liability actions and premises liability cases, in settlement and at trial. Those recoveries have included $2.1 million for a young New York City police officer injured in the line of duty in Brooklyn, $1.8 million for a boy exposed to lead paint toxins in the Bronx, $1.3 million for a construction electrician injured on a job site in Manhattan and $1.0 million for a day laborer injured as the result of a multiple car collision in Manhattan.
He has lectured on topics related to the Firm ' s practice at the New York County Trial Lawyers Association. Brian graduated from Colgate University in 1983, and from Villanova University School of Law in 1986. He is a member of the New York State Bar Association. Brian is admitted to practice in the Courts of the State of New York as well as the Southern and Eastern Districts of the Federal Court.
Monica Risi Merrill has been with the firm since 1977. She is the attorney in charge of the Medical Malpractice Department, and has been involved in cases involving all specialty areas of medicine, including internal medicine, surgery, anesthesiology, orthopaedics and maternal and child health.
Mrs. Merrill is a registered nurse with clinical experience in critical care and coronary care nursing. Her educational and clinical preparation provide her with a high level of knowledge and expertise in medical malpractice cases. She has been responsible for hundreds of medical malpractice actions brought to successful financial conclusion, dozens of which have resulted in recoveries in excess of two million dollars, including: $2,750,000 for the death of a 17 year old for failure to diagnose brain bleed after childbirth; $3,000,000 for neurologic injury suffered by a young mother of 2 as a result of the failure to diagnose cerebral aneurysm; $3,900,000 for failure of an orthopedist to diagnose spinal cord bleed resulting in paraplegia of a young woman; $4,500,000 for the death of a young mother of 3 as a result of anesthesia mismanagement during a tubal ligation; $5,500,000 for permanent brain damage suffered by a young man as a result of the failure to provide proper respiratory care; $6,000,000 for brain damage suffered by a 17 year old during a gynecologic procedure; $17,000,000 for the wrongful death of a businessman as a result of a delay in intestinal surgery.
Mrs. Merrill has extensive expertise in case analysis, evaluation, research, preparation and discovery proceedings. She has taken sworn testimony from hundreds of physicians, nurses and medical workers. She is also experienced in all aspects of complex products liability litigation involving medical devices, equipment and pharmaceutical preparations.
Mrs. Merrill has taught and lectured on both the graduate and undergraduate levels in nursing and health law related issues. She has been an a member of the Adjunct Faculty Graduate Division - Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing; a Lecturer at the Queensborough Community College-Department of Nursing; a Mentor Attorney in the Externship Program of New York Law School and an attorney panelist for the Medical Malpractice Mediation Panel for the First Department, Bronx County. She is a former Board member of the Metropolitan Chapter of the American Association of Nurse Attorneys.
Mrs. Merrill is a graduate of Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing and New York Law School. She is admitted in the New York State Courts, United States Federal Courts of both the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, the United States Supreme Court and is a member of the New York State Bar Association.
Gerard K. Ryan, Jr. joined the Firm in 2000 working effectively in the Medical Malpractice Department as well as on complex negligence matters.
His training has provided him with the ability to prepare and try medical malpractice cases in all areas of medicine as well as the field of general negligence. He has obtained many substantial verdicts and settlements for the clients he has represented. Among his verdicts has been an award of $1.8 million in a case involving an the death of a 52 years old woman due to a delay in diagnosing lung cancer. He also obtained a $1.5 million verdict for a woman injured due to a delay in diagnosing endocarditis. He has also been instrumental in preparing cases which have resulted in substantial settlements including $3.3 million for a woman injured when a her vehicle collided with a truck in Nassau County and $2.65 million for the death of a 42 year old father of two who died as a result of an motor vehicle accident where the defendant argued the lack of a seatbelt contributed to his death. Gerry served as co-counsel for the firm with Robert Kelner in the successful defense of Liza Minnelli in the matter of Gest v. Minnelli.
Gerry has also authored and argued numerous appeals in the various Appellate Courts in New York and was lead counsel in the seminal case of Tran v. New Rochelle Hospital, 99 N.Y.2d 383, 786 N.E.2d 444 (2003).
Gerry Ryan is a former member of the Nassau County Republican Committee and served on the Board of Directors for the East Meadow Little League for 9 years where he was instrumental in starting a “Challenger Division” which gave physically challenged children the opportunity to play baseball in a team environment.
Gerry also lectures at St. John's University School of Law as part of the school's Continuing Legal Education Program in the areas of medical malpractice and general negligence. He has also lectured at the New York County Lawyers Association and the Nassau County Bar Association. Gerry has also served as a panel member on a discussion with regard to “Tort Reform” at St. John's University School of Law and has been a panel member on a discussion of landowner's liability at the Municipal Art Society of New York.
He graduated from St. John's School of Law in 1980, is a member of Association of Trial Lawyers of America and the New York State Bar Association. He is admitted to practice in the New York's State Courts as well as in New York's Federal Trial Courts.
Emil L. Samuels joined the firm in 1991. He concentrates his practice in all types of personal injury matters, including motor vehicle accidents, labor law, premises liability, elevator accidents and municipal liability. As a trial lawyer with the firm, he has successfully represented our clients in both state and federal court. Emil has also written and argued appeals in the Appellate Courts in the First and Second Departments.
Among his many accomplishments, he successfully obtained a settlement of $3.8 million for the wrongful death of a construction worker who died after falling from a defective scaffold. Emil obtained a $2 million recovery in federal court for the wrongful death of a merchant seaman who was killed on a ship in the Persian Gulf when the forklift he was operating was caused to go out of control and topple upon him. He also was instrumental in obtaining a recovery of $1.4 million for a man seriously injured in a car-bus collision, and a $1 million settlement for a 39 year old woman seriously injured in a one car accident.
He has lectured before the New York County Lawyers Association, and has written in the field of personal injury law.
He is also actively involved in politics. For five years, Emil worked as a legislative assistant in the New York State Assembly, where he was responsible for the development of state legislation. In 2000, he ran for the NY State Assembly in the 17th Assembly District in Nassau County. Currently, Emil is very active in his local community, and serves as a member of his local board of zoning appeals.
Emil earned his Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Political Science and Communications from Queens College, CUNY, in 1985, and graduated from St. John's University School of Law in 1990.
Emil is admitted to practice law in New York State Courts, New Jersey State Courts, as well as in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. He is a member of the New York State Bar Association and the Association of Trial Lawyers of America.
Todd J. Strier joined the firm of Kelner & Kelner in 1994. His work concentrates in the area of personal injury litigation, civil service law and medical malpractice. He has been involved in the litigation of many cases that have ended in verdicts of $1,000,000 or more. He has spent many years building valued relationships with New York City municipal unions and organizations including the Department of Sanitation, the New York City Police Department and the NYC Fire Department's EMT division, to name a few.
He is General Counsel to the New York City Police Department's Honor Legion . The Honor Legion, founded in 1900, is the oldest fraternal organization in the New York City Police Department. It is composed of members of the police force of the City of New York, comprising all ranks, who during the history of the Honor Legion have received department recognition and have been awarded Medals of Honorable Mention for deeds of valor performed at imminent risk of life or who have been commended for meritorious acts involving personal risk, and who are entitled to wear the insignia of their department.
He is also General Counsel to the Columbia Association of the New York City Department of Sanitation, the New York City Sanitation Retirees, Inc. and DSNY Football, Inc., the New York City Sanitation Department's football team. He frequently lectures on personal injury and civil service matters to these and other groups.
In addition to his professional affiliations, Todd is a senior auxiliary officer of the New York City Mounted Auxiliary Parks Enforcement Unit, a not-for-profit organization which works with the Parks Enforcement Patrol mounted unit patrolling New York City's parks.
Todd received a bachelors degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo (1989) in business administration and a Juris Doctor from Hofstra University (1994).
Todd is admitted to practice law in all New York State Courts as well as the United States District Court - Southern District and Eastern District. He is a member of the New York State Bar Association.
Whatever your situation, if you need a personal injury lawyer, Kelner & Kelner can likely help you. New York residents have counted on our firm since 1971 to provide superior representation and excellent results. Contact our New York City law firm today to learn more.