The Law Offices of Alan J. Rich, LLC

We are proud of our history of successfully standing up for the rights of our clients and getting results. We've even successfully made case law that helps stop large bullying law firms from "working the system" to wear down the "little guy." Our precedent setting trial and appellate cases have been cited thousands of times by courts and by other lawyers in their briefs. We bring the same zeal to every case and every assignment. Many of our cases have been featured in national media, law journals and professional journals. Attorney Rich began his career working for, and learning from, a couple the legal giants of their era, Harry Lipsig, who the NY Times referred to as the "King of Torts" and Joe Kelner, known for successfully fighting some of the toughest defendants in the country. Here are just a few samples of successful cases where the Rich Law Firm has represented plaintiffs at trial and on appeal for over 30 years in injury, discrimination, employment and disability rights cases. Hyperlinks are to reported opinions and to media accounts. Also, Rich's language skills in Spanish, French and American Sign Language have enabled him to better represent these clients from the beginning up through trial. He has been featured on numerous networks as a legal expert and to discuss his cases.

● Rivera v. Lutheran Medical Center from New York Law Journal – LAW.COM, October 28, 2008, NYLJ, p.1., "Morgan Lewis Disqualified From Representing Non-Party Hospital Witnesses in Litigation." In discrimination and retaliation case, “Plaintiff moved to disqualify defendants' law firm, Morgan Lewis & Bockius, from representing former and current Lutheran Medical Center [LMC] employees who LMC identified as witnesses in plaintiff's suit. Rich argued the firm violated the Code of Professional Responsibility in soliciting these non-party witnesses as clients. The court found these were non-parties witnesses who had no potential legal exposure in this case and were solicited by Morgan Lewis merely "to gain tactical advantage in the litigation by insulating them from any direct contact with plaintiff's counsel." The Court ruled this conduct was "particularly egregious, since Morgan Lewis, by violating the Code [of ethics] in soliciting these witnesses as clients, effectively did an end run around the laudable policy consideration of promoting the importance of informal Discovery practices in litigation.” Thus, plaintiff's motion to disqualify the firm from representing certain witnesses was granted.  Having found defense counsels' actions ethical rules that attorneys must follow, the Court found itself obligated to "report Morgan Lewis' misconduct to the Disciplinary Committee." See, Note 6 at Rivera v. Lutheran Medical Center, 22 Misc.3d 178 (Sup. Ct., Kings Cty. 2008) affd. 73 A.D.3d 891 (2d Dept 2010, affirming trial court determination that defense counsels' actions violated the Rules of Professional Responsibility, the basis for their disqualification). In the underlying action, the Court denied defendants’ motion to dismiss retaliation and disability claims of employee under NYC and NY State Human Rights Laws. Plaintiff, an employee of defendant hospital, was fired after his deaf sister-in-law settled her discrimination case for $200,000 against Plaintiff's employer, a hospital that failed to provide her a sign language interpreter during her 5 day admission. Rivera's claim settled for a significant undisclosed amount.

● Loeffler v. Staten Island Univ. Hosp., 582 F. 3d 268 (2d Cir. 2009); Ground breaking precedent--first time 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals acknowledged full breadth of NYC's anti-discrimination law, reinterpreting that the New York City Human Rights Law "must be reviewed independently from and 'more liberally' than their federal and state counterparts." The Court reversed District Court’s dismissal of civil rights and negligence actions under federal, NY state and NY City laws for damages by a deaf patient, his deaf wife AND their minor children with normal hearing. The deaf parents were denied the right to sign language interpreters which the hospital compelled their minor children to interpret for their deaf parents, even following their deaf father’s stroke. Case settled for an amount the parties agreed to publicly disclose as a seven-figure amount. 

● See also, analysis of Loeffler case jurisprudence in Univ. Of Chicago Law Review article, “Revitalizing the Law That Preceded the Movement: Associational Discrimination and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,” Chamusco B., 84 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1285 (2017), SI Advance, Oct. 16, 2009.

●  Delano-Pyle v. Victoria County, Texas, 302 F.3d 567 (5th Cir. 2002) US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld Rich's trial verdict in US District Court, Southern District of Texas, finding civil rights violations resulting in wrongful arrest and imprisonment of a deaf driver "suspected" of intoxication. The jury found that the Victoria County Sheriff observed that the deaf Plaintiff could not hear his instructions but administered an oral field sobriety test anyway, causing deaf Plaintiff to "fail" the test whose directions even the Sheriff admitted he believed Plaintiff couldn't hear. Houston Chronicle, July 30, 2000.

●   Morsette v. Final Call, 278 A.D.2d 81 (1st Dep't 2000) denial of defendants’ summary judgment motion in a libel action determining that altering plaintiff’s photo to depict her in prison garb by Nation of Islam official newspaper, was question of fact for jury. $1.3 million verdict in Plaintiff’s favor, NY Daily News, June 8, 2001, (mod. at 309 A.D.2d 249, 1st Dep't 2003).

●  Owens v. Comcast Corp., (2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23498, E.D.Pa. 2004) denial of summary judgment in a race and retaliation claim by an African-American news reporter, where employer Comcast withdrew its promotion of Plaintiff from reporter to news anchor, after Comcast learned that Plaintiff had a pending discrimination lawsuit against a Comcast subsidiary, Plaintiff's former employer, QVC.

●  Velez v. QVC, Inc., 227 F.Supp.2d 384 (E.D.Pa. 2002) denial of summary judgment to television shopping network in claim by minority show hosts for discriminatory termination and differing work conditions where network had history of restricting all minority on-air hosts to appearing during overnight and graveyard shift time slots. The suit paved the way for QVC to change its practice, featuring on-air hosts of color in prime-time and daytime, a practice begun only after commencement of this lawsuit.  NY Times, 1998 and 1999.

●  Bravin v. Mount Sinai Med. Center, 186 F.R.D. 293 (S.D.N.Y.1999) finding deaf plaintiff husband of non-disabled wife, entitled to reasonable accommodation under the ADA, federal Rehabilitation Act, NY State and NY City Human Rights Laws to participate in his wife's Lamaze classes through sign language interpretive services because the " benefit or service, was open to a person without a disability," and, therefore, defendant hospital could not "deny access to that benefit or service to a person with a disability." NY Times, Apr. 17, 1999. [subj to partial reconsideration]

●  Mohamed v. Marriott Intern., Inc., 905 F. Supp. 141 (SDNY, Sweet, J., 1995, No. 94 CIV. 2336, denial of motion for summary judgment in disability discrimination termination case); 1996 WL 103838; 5 Am. Disab. Cas. 940 (BNA) (Mar. 8, 1996) Court granted Plaintiff's motion to compel examination of Marriott manager's sign language interpreting skills where deaf employee was fired based on manager's claim that Plaintiff confessed to her in sign language to having stolen money on the job. The examination demonstrated the manager had no interpreting skills and virtually no skills in communicating even in basic sign language.

●  Green v. Tyson, (Sup. Ct., NY Cty., Ind. 16850/1989), successful assault and battery trial verdict for former top 10 ranked boxing contender Mitch "Blood" Green against former heavyweight boxing champion, Mike Tyson. NY Daily News, Sep. 30, 1997 Their widely publicized 4:30 a.m. street brawl in front of Harlem's Dapper Dan's on 125th Street, arose after Tyson's promoter, Don King, refused Green a rematch with Tyson after Tyson's 12 round decision against Green in Madison Square Garden. In what would become part of boxing lore, Green had tried to pull out of that fight in the Garden, claiming that he had been lied to about his purse from the fight by his then Manager, Carl King, who told him that he and Tyson were receiving equal amounts for the fight. At the time of that fight, Green was ranked higher than Tyson, who would later go on to become heavyweight champion. On the eve of their Garden fight, Green learned that Tyson's purse was, in fact, about 30 times Green's prize money, leading Green to try to pull out of the fight. Former NY State Athletic Commissioner, Jose Torres, testified at trial that he had told Green that if he pulled out of the fight, he'd make sure he wouldn't fight again in the U.S., but Torres wasn't aware at the time of that pay disparity. Tyson's promoter, Don King also blackballed Green for trying to pull out of the fight and for accusing King of cheating him. Torres testified that he later suspended Green's manager, Carl King, the adopted son of promoter, Don King, for a conflict of interest. Torres remorsefully testified that, in retrospect, as Commissioner, he was "too close to Tyson." Torres, himself a former world's Light Heavyweight boxing champion, related his family-like connection to, and even love for, Tyson. He recounted that he and Tyson shared a special common bond, both progeny of the legendary boxing trainer Cus D'Amato. Torres testified that "Cus loved Tyson the same way he loved me...in effect we were like brothers. I was the oldest brother." This closeness helped to marginalize Green in a business where the overwhelming majority of heavyweight championship fights at the time were promoted by Don King who had nearly all top 10 heavyweights under contract as their promoter. King's refusal to offer Green a rematch fueled Green's motives behind a street fight so fierce that Tyson broke his own hand. 

Despite this history, having seen Rich successfully battle for his client Green at trial, "team Tyson" approached Rich and later hired him to assist Tyson to regain his boxing license which had been revoked for biting Evander Holyfield's ear in their 1997 Las Vegas match. Tyson's license was later reinstated by the Nevada Athletic Commission.