New York Trial Notebook

About the Authors

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Edward L. Birnbaum is the head of the Litigation Department at Herzfeld & Rubin, P.C., in New York. He is a prolific author of litigation articles and lectures frequently on litigation strategy and techniques for Bar Associations and Continuing Legal Education Institutions. His practice areas in litigation include personal injury, product liability, professional liability, and commercial trials.

Mr. Birnbaum was Chairman of the New York State Bar Association Committee on the Supreme Court, Chairman of the New York State Bar Association Action Unit No. 6, and a Member of the House of Delegates to The New York State Bar Association. He has served as an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and the Small Claims Division of the Civil Court of the City of New York. He has been an adjunct faculty member of New York University School of Continuing Education, teaching a course on the CPLR. He is a Fellow of The Roscoe Pound Institute, and a Fellow of the New York State Bar Foundation.

Mr. Birnbaum is the subject of biography in fifteen different national and international who’s who publications. He has the highest rating from Martindale Hubbell and he was named New York Super Lawyer in 2006. He received an LL.B Degree from New York University School of Law.

Carl T. Grasso is a member of the firm of Herzfeld & Rubin, P.C., in New York City, specializing in litigation and trial work in the areas of personal injury, product liability and commercial litigation. Since 1980 he has been intimately involved in trials all over the United States, as well as in New York. He is an arbitrator in the Small Claims Division of the Civil Court of the City of New York. He holds Martindale Hubbell’s highest rating, and is a cum laude graduate of New York Law School.

Mr. Grasso also served in the United States Army in the Corps of Engineers while in Vietnam, and later in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He has written for the Military Law Review and the Army Lawyer. He retired from the U.S. Army Reserve as a full colonel in 1996. His awards include the Bronze Star and the Legion of Merit.

Justice Ariel E. Belen graduated from Brooklyn College and Cornell University School of Law, where he earned a Doctor of Law degree with a Specialization in International Legal Affairs. Prior to his election to the bench in 1995, he served as a Supervising Attorney with the Criminal Defense Division of the Legal Aid Society. He later joined the New York City Law Department and served as the Bronx Borough Chief of the Office of the Corporation Counsel.

Justice Belen is a member of the Cornell University Council; Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission on Minorities; Unified Court System Curriculum Development Committee; New York State Second Judicial District Uniform Rules Committee; and the Kings County Jury Board. He is a founding member of the Cervantes Society.

Justice Belen has headed the Trial Assignment and Jury Coordinating Parts in Brooklyn Supreme Court, on a rotating basis, since 1998.

In March 2005 Justice Belen was appointed an Associate Justice of the Appellate Term, for the Supreme Court for the 2nd and 11th Judicial Districts.

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