Philip Freidin, founding partner with Freidin Brown P.A. in Miami. Courtesy photo.

It's been 50 years since Miami trial lawyer Philip Freidin walked down Flagler Street, knocking on doors in search of a job after passing in the bar. Since then, he's been instrumental in some of Florida's highest verdicts and consequential cases, ignoring cries of "You can't win this" as he goes.

"I actually like it when somebody says it's really hard to win," Freidin said.

When 4-year-old Joel Goode drowned in the moat beside the Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World Co.'s resort, countless attorneys advised a young Freidin to accept the $200,000 the "happiest place on Earth" was offering his clients, the child's grieving parents. Instead, Freidin took a risk and went to trial.

"I was told at that time, 'You can't really win big against Disney,' because the cases are always in Orlando, and at that time, Disney was the major employer in town," Freidin said.

Freidin's clients walked away with a $2 million verdict—which, back in the 1980s, was the highest verdict Disney had ever shouldered.

"They came with this reputation of 'everything is wonderful there,' and we were able to show that this was predictable," Freidin. "They had a lot of kids being lost in the park."

Freidin still remembers the "don't go there" warnings from peers when he was preparing to sue rapper 50 Cent in New York.

Freidin's client Lastonia Leviston was the victim of "the ultimate bullying," the way Freidin saw it, caught in the middle of a public feud between 50 Cent and rapper and music executive Rick Ross. Leviston is the mother of Ross' child,and rival 50 Cent saw an opportunity to use Leviston against Ross by publishing a private sex tape she'd made with another man.

"When our client broke up with the guy she had sex with, he took the video and sold it or gave it to 50 Cent. 50 Cent then not only put it on the Internet, but he narrated it and called her all sorts of names," Freidin said. "It got something like 5 million views."

Though jury trials against celebrities are notoriously hard to win, Freidin secured a $7 million verdict.

In 1981, Freidin served as co-counsel in what became the first ever seven-figure verdict for a Haitian family in Florida, awarded $1.8 million in a medical malpractice case on behalf of their ]baby Belle Glade, who suffered a brain injury.

"You have to go back and think in terms of how things were then," Freidin said. "The arguments were, 'You can't get a large verdict for Haitians.' It was a different world."

The birth of backup alarms

More than 200 jury trials, 100 nonjury trials and 30 multimillion-dollar verdicts later, Freidin says he's most proud of the cases that left a lasting footprint—like West v. Caterpillar Tractor Co. Inc., which changed the law on strict products liability in Florida.

Freidin represented the husband of a woman killed in 1970 by a Caterpillar tractor that was reversing as she walked down a Miami street under construction.

Before West, attorneys had to prove that product manufacturers or sellers were negligent, meaning they knew of a predictable danger and should have expected an injury to occur. Now, plaintiffs need only prove that something was unreasonably dangerous, whether the defendant knew it or not.

The legacy of that case is the now-widespread use of backup alarms for trucks and other machinery—something Freidin noted was "almost never heard of" at the time.

"I did some research with my experts and found that there were used rarely, but in the military, in certain military operations," Freidin said.

Likewise, Freidin's work on Powell v. Prudential Insurance opened the door for plaintiffs lawyers to prove bad faith and succeed in cases they never could before.

Freidin says successful trials are grounded in courage, the ability to embrace great risk. But by nature, that doesn't always work. When Freidin's wrongful death suit on behalf of a woman called Rose, whose husband drowned in the pool of a hotel, resulted in a defense verdict, he felt sick for days.

"My wife now refers to it as 'Rose disease,'" Freidin said. "'You have Rose disease,' from stress, from losing."

Freidin's wife, Ellen Freidin, is also an attorney, whose career is peppered with accomplishments that have furthered women's rights and blocked gerrymandering.

'In no ordinary way'

Retired Florida Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente and Freidin's friend of more than 30 years describes him as someone who takes his job seriously, but never himself.

"I'm constantly laughing at the way he sees the world," Pariente said.

Shortly after meeting "the power couple," Pariente recalls how Freidin set about making an ice cream cake for his wife's birthday.

"But it was no ordinary ice cream cake," Pariente said. "He probably got about 20 flavors and he proceeded to put different types of flavors of ice cream on each layer, and then varnish it with every conceivable thing: M&Ms and sprinkles and jelly beans. I think about this over the years because it's not that men can't be creative, but I think what it did for me is see that, here is a man that is devoted to his wife, he wants to do something special for her, and he does it in no ordinary way."

Though Freidin's all for sugarcoating a cake, Pariente says he won't do the same with the truth. This has led her to count on him to be an honest adviser.

"He's not going to give you compliments just to make you feel better," Pariente said.

Philip Freidin founding partner with Freidin Brown P.A. in Miami. Courtesy photo.

Freidin's served on multiple Judicial Nominating Commissions and been president of the Florida Justice Association, a voluntary bar organization for personal injury lawyers who rally against tort reform efforts including and damages caps.

"When we used to go into court when I started, juries were much more trusting of us," Freidin said. "But now you go into court, probably 35% to 40% of the jurors already start out thinking no matter what, 'something's fishy.' "

It's an issue that riles Freidin.

" They say they're against frivolous lawsuits, but then they try to turn around and say nobody can collect more than $300,000. So if you think about it, who is that penalizing? Not the frivolous, small lawsuit where the claim is for $2,500," Freidin said. "It's really an attack on the big lawsuits where the people need it the most."

Freidin's isn't a job that offers "a steady paycheck for the soul," but he's OK with that. And in his mind, if a case seems unwinnable, that's only because it hasn't been done—yet.

 

Philip Freidin

Born: May 1945, New York

Spouse: Ellen Freidin

Children: Jonathan and Allison Freidin

Education: American University, Washington College of Law, 1969; University of Florida, B.A., 1966;

Experience: Founding partner at Freidin Brown P.A., 1974-present; Associate, Spencer & Taylor 1971-1974; Associate, Ser & Keyfetz, 1969-1971

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