Nicholas Papain
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.
Notable case results
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.
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.
For construction worker who lost a leg when run over by a reversing excavator
For pedestrian who sustained brain damage when struck by a speeding police car
For motorist whose legs were severely crushed in a multi-vehicle highway collision
For young man injured by a falling rotted tree limb in Central Park
Critical role in New York State tobacco litigation resulting in a historic $25 billion recovery
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
