Michele S. Mirman Founding partner of
Mirman, Markovits & Landau, P.C.

“I have represented clients now for more than 47 years, and perhaps I’ve forgotten a name, but I’ve never forgotten what happened to them.”

To Michele S. Mirman, this is just the onus of her job – not only as trial lawyer and founding partner at her personal injury law firm Mirman, Markovits & Landau, P.C., but as a civil servant. Because to her, it’s about helping people who’ve been hurt by sexual abuse, reckless driving, and medical malpractice.

“I never forget the trajectory that [my clients] followed after being devastated by an injury,” says Michele. “I’d like to think that because of my work, I’ve helped them through their recovery. That is the most important thing to me.”

Based in the heart of New York City, finding justice for her clients isn’t as easy as she makes it look. And even though Michele’s been in the industry (and the city) for several decades, there are still persistent challenges making her fight all that much harder.

“There’s an old adage: that justice delayed is justice denied,” Michele says. “There are thousands and thousands of lawsuits wending their way through the courts every day. The calendar delay – once we file a lawsuit, finish the discovery, have our depositions, and put the case on the calendar – can be as long as two years or more. That’s justice delayed.”

Across NYC, Mirman, Markovits & Landau represents personal injury victims throughout the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens. Brooklyn alone would be the fourth largest city in the US, if it were a city – and that’s just one borough they service within the Big Apple. That means proactivity and longevity are even more crucial to Michele’s day-to-day operations.

“As soon as I have sufficient proof that my case is meritorious, I start the action. I don’t wait. I don’t delay. I don’t drag it out. Because I know it’s going to be a year or two of delay,” explains Michele. “My clients are already going through a terrible time in their lives, and I’d like them to see their case over as quickly as possible.”

This strategy has helped Michele build a legacy around Mirman, Markovits & Landau as one of the leading personal injury law firms in NYC.

Social justice roots

From a young age, Michele was involved in several social justice causes thanks to her parents. For her, what comes to mind was her mother’s staunch support for American politician, diplomat, and former Democratic presidential nominee, Adlai Stevenson, and his efforts to eliminate government corruption. Or her father’s work as an accountant for the Manhattan-based Lawyers Guild of New York when the progressive group was established.

“They just brought me along with them – that’s what our family was like. It was natural for me to continue [my education] into the law,” says Michele.

Though law school was undoubtedly in her future, Michele didn’t pursue it just for the degree. It would also lay a strong foundation for her interest in public advocacy. That’s why she chose the Antioch School of Law (now the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law) from 1973 to 1976, just two years into its existence.

“The first deans of this school were Jean Camper Cahn and Edgar Cahn. Jean was the first black woman [to attend] Yale Law School, and their vision was to open a law school with a poverty law firm associated with it,” explains Michele.

At the time, there was a scarcity of attorneys who would represent poor individuals, and that’s a gap the law school aimed to fill. From there, Michele returned home to work for a personal injury law firm that was very active in the New York State Trial Lawyers Association. They brought her along in 1977 to work on New York State’s wrongful death statute.

Getting New York state up-to-speed

“The wrongful death statute prescribes how much a person’s life is worth if they’ve been killed by the negligence of someone else,” Michele says. “It was written in 1847, and we were the first state in the Union to pass a wrongful death act that allowed the immediate family of the deceased person to bring a lawsuit. We were well ahead of our time.”

Regardless of its trailblazing, New York’s wrongful death recovery was (and is) still limited to pecuniary loss, or the loss of money the surviving individuals suffered due to a legal wrong that caused the wrongful death. In other words, it’s related to the amount of money the deceased was earning for themselves and/or providing for their loved ones.

“Back in the 1850s, the only people who were really earning were white, propertied men. Now, 150 years later, the law is still the same, only awarding damages based upon pecuniary loss,” says Michele.

In fact, the current law doesn’t recognize pain and suffering, mental anguish, or loss of companionship for surviving family members as grounds for financial recovery. Moreover, the law only ensures surviving children are allowed financial recovery, not spouses or parents.

Michele has focused on changing this law throughout her tenure at the New York State Trial Lawyers Association (NYSTLA), especially during her presidency from 2019 to 2020.

During her term at NYSTLA, Michele worked on proposed legislation called the Grieving Families Act (GFA), which seeks to modernize the state’s wrongful death statute by expanding financial recovery to “close family members,” including spouses, children, siblings, domestic partners, parents, grandparents, and stepparents, among others.

In 2022, a version of the GFA was passed in both houses of the New York Legislature but was eventually vetoed by the governor. Revisions have since been made in 2023 and are currently under review with hopes it will pass again, thus taking New York state into the 21st century.

In a similar vein, Michele remembers a time where her client’s traumatic sexual assault case helped change the law, bringing New York state up-to-speed in a similar way.

“Back in the early 80s, I represented a woman who had been raped at her own home. This was at a time when psychological books did not recognize rape trauma syndrome,” Michele recalls. “I had to call a psychiatrist to prove that such a thing existed, I had to call a psychologist to prove my client’s symptoms, and the judge had to make a ruling that such an injury actually existed.”

Rape trauma syndrome (RTS) is a type of post-traumatic stress disorder affecting victims of sexual assault, typically causing severe physical and emotional responses. Since then, RTS has been acknowledged by the psychology industry as a whole, as well as our justice system.

Medical malpractice among women

In her pursuit of helping vulnerable populations across New York, Michele also works medical malpractice cases on behalf of women especially.

“What I’ve found over the years – and the research certainly bears this out – is that women are on the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to medical treatment,” says Michele. “Many times their complaints are [dismissed by doctors] as hysterical, saying ‘you need more sleep,’ or ‘you’re under too much stress.’”

Under these unfortunate circumstances where doctors fail to listen to their female patients’ signs and symptoms, effective medical care becomes less of a possibility.

“As a result, especially in cancer cases, a woman’s cancer progresses astronomically and the prognosis becomes poor,” Michele concludes.

“We bring those lawsuits, and it seems apparent to me that, in each of those cases, had it been a man complaining, all the necessary tests would have been run, their complaints listened to, and perhaps their medical issue would have been caught sooner.”

The right banking partner in the fight for justice

Finding success in the legal industry has been a multilayered effort for Michele. Part of that was finding an effective partnership with Esquire Bank after working with a larger bank for many years.

“As you can well imagine, with a large firm like mine, each case has many expenses associated with it. Aside from court costs and filing fees, we have experts on cases. We have medical records on cases. We have deposition costs on cases,” Michele explains.

“Working with Esquire Bank has allowed us to make sure every single case is prosecuted to its fullest,” says Michele. “In addition, they’ve also enabled us to help many more people.”

But perhaps the thing that’s meant the most to Michele is how Esquire Bank prioritizes its human interactions over business transactions. In fact, Esquire has gone out of their way to support Michele’s endeavors outside of her law firm, namely her work as President of the Brooklyn Women’s Bar Foundation.

“Our goal is to support women in the practice of law, and to make sure that there is no discrimination against women,” says Michele. “We have a big fundraiser every March where we hold classes and teach women about business, and Esquire Bank has supported us.”

With Esquire Bank at her back, Michele has contributed even more to the social justice causes that mean the most to her and impact both her industry and community. And thanks to Esquire’s transparency and streamlined approach to banking, Michele has been tuned into her business more than ever before, making it easier to give cases her all.

“I believe that each of us has to contribute to his or her community – I think it’s critical,” Michele asserts. “I hope the law continues to grow and expand so that, no matter who we are, all of us are offered the same protections.”