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About Nicholas Papain

Nicholas Papain is one of the most prominent personal injury trial lawyers in New York and served as the firm's managing member from 1999 to 2018. He has been with the firm his entire legal career, first arriving as a summer law clerk in 1977 and joining full-time upon graduating in 1978. He began trying cases in 1980, winning his first trial for a woman wrongfully imprisoned for 11 days, and has since won numerous multi-million-dollar verdicts and settlements in product liability, fire, premises, and motor vehicle cases. He played a major role in the $700 million settlement for 9/11 World Trade Center rescue and recovery workers who sued over inadequate respiratory protection.

Proven verdicts and settlements

$25 billionSettlement

Sullivan Papain was among the firms representing New York State against Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, and Lorillard, securing a $25 billion recovery through the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement.

New York State (Master Settlement Agreement) · 1998Product LiabilityRead the full story →
$712 millionSettlement

Sullivan Papain served as court-appointed co-liaison counsel in the World Trade Center Disaster Site Litigation, helping secure a settlement of more than $712 million for roughly 10,000 police officers, firefighters, and construction workers who developed serious respiratory and other illnesses after working in the toxic ruins of the World Trade Center.

U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York · 2010Workplace InjuryRead the full story →
View all 3 proven verdicts →

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.

Practice areas

Bar admissions & credentials

State Bar of New York

Other attorneys at Sullivan Papain Block McManus Coffinas & Cannavo

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Proven verdicts and settlements from other New York firms

Levy Konigsberg LLP
Levy Konigsberg LLP
$325 million verdict ($25 million compensatory plus $300 million punitive; reduced to $120 million by the trial court in November 2020; reversed and judgment entered for Johnson & Johnson in July 2022) · $325 Million Talc Mesothelioma Verdict Against Johnson & Johnson, Cut to $120 Million and Then Reversed on Causation
Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf
Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf
$272.5 million · $272.5 Million for the Victims of the Tribeca Crane Collapse
Kramer Dillof Livingston & Moore
Kramer Dillof Livingston & Moore
$172 million · $172 Million Bronx Verdict After EMTs Arrived Without Oxygen or Defibrillator and Told Family to Wait
Weitz & Luxenberg
Weitz & Luxenberg
$10.9 billion · Weitz and Luxenberg Helps Win $10.9 Billion Roundup Settlement for 125,000 Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Claimants
The Perecman Firm, P.L.L.C.
The Perecman Firm, P.L.L.C.
$9.9 million · Union Laborer's Ten-Foot Fall From a Rolling Scaffold Settles for $9.9 Million