Plucked from the sky: Podhurst Orseck earned a reputation—and millions of dollars—representing the victims of airline disasters. But its plucky founder Aaron S. Podhurst says the firm has just begun to define its niche

South Florida CEO,  August, 2005  by Jaime Hernandez

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That hands-on work pays off in the end, Diaz says.

"It's not fun when you're doing it," he says. "But when you're doing everything in the case, [you remember] what the witness said in the deposition and then know that this document that you just looked at contradicts what he said two weeks ago when you were in that deposition."

A FIRM TAKES FLIGHT

That acumen has built up over years, starting in earnest after the first fatal 1972 Eastern Airlines crash Podhurst Orseck was involved in litigation over.

Lawyers all over the country, including Podhurst, who was representing the families of those on board, filed dozens of lawsuits against Eastern in state and federal court in Miami.

District judge King recalls, during one of the hearings, Podhurst suggesting to state and federal judges on the case that the lawsuits be combined into one class-action suit and that the judges jointly listen to all of the discovery presented during the hearings. The judges agreed. Podhurst was appointed lead counsel for the plaintiffs, and the case was eventually settled.

His law partner Diaz says, "Through that case, he got to know all of the prominent aviation lawyers in the United States. Like everything else in the legal profession, the best way to get business is to do a good job for your clients. They will refer you to other clients."

The case started a chain reaction that saw the firm become associated with other plane crash litigation. King says Podhurst Orseck was a pioneer in suing American airline companies in Miami, state or federal court, regardless of whether a crash occurred in Florida, in other states or abroad. The firm successfully argued that companies could be held liable regardless of where an accident occurred.

Such was the case in the Silk Air matter. A Singapore attorney who represented some families who lost relatives in the crash contacted Podhurst Orseck because of its expertise in aviation disaster lawsuits. Marks was assigned to case, and he represented 33 families against Ohio-based Parker Hannifin Corp. After discrediting defense witnesses at trial and presenting thousands of documents showing a device in the tail rudder made by the company had failed and caused the crash, Marks convinced a 12-member jury to vote unanimously in favor of three of his clients. The $43.6 million jury award set the benchmark that led to confidential settlements for the rest of Marks' clients in the case.

"There was nothing but tears in the courtroom when the jury award was read," Marks recalls. "I even started to tear up. Our clients started to hug us. The jurors all took my name and said they were coming to Miami to see me. One gave me his juror badge as a reminder of what happened. It's still sitting on my desk."

Since the Eastern case, Podhurst Orseck has taken on various airplane-related cases, including the November 2001 crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in Queens, N.Y., and the Air France Concorde disaster just outside Paris in 2000. Between 1993 and 1998, the firm negotiated more than $250 million in settlements, according to The Miami Herald.