Michael Koskoff, a longtime Connecticut legal professional, screenwriter, and former president of the Connecticut bankruptcy of the American Board of Trial Advocates, died early Wednesday morning.
Widely acknowledged for his decades of court docket litigation enjoy, in addition to his sharp intellect and humor, Koskoff became a senior legal professional at Bridgeport’s Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, which his father founded. He died from complications of pancreatic cancer.
Koskoff was 77 years old. According to the law firm’s website, he became Connecticut’s only member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, an organization limited to the top one hundred trial attorneys in the kingdom.
The litigator had an extensive circle of buddies from across the U. S. A.., including attorney David Rosen, who, after watching Koskoff and his father represent Black Panther Lonnie McLucas in a 1969 New Haven courtroom, knew he had a chum for life.
Rosen of New Haven’s David Rosen and Associates had represented mythical Black Panther Bobby Seale and became in awe watching Koskoff, a lawyer for the best three years on time, represent his client in court.
“His father [Ted Koskoff] became the lead recommender. However, Mike handled essential portions of the case,” Rosen said. “He changed into hard, fascinating, surprisingly powerful, and as smart as a whip.”
The law company announced his death by declaring that the referred legal professional “spent his complete career running to thwart injustice, forestall corporate and governmental abuse, and supply a strong voice to the disenfranchised.”
Koskoff’s company credits him with several multimillion-dollar jury verdicts and out-of-court settlements. The litigator turned into a frequent lecturer. A most important medical malpractice case he and his firm handled has become the subject of “Damages,” a nationally acclaimed book utilizing Barry Werth. Another scientific malpractice case made countrywide headlines and saw a jury award $12.2 million to a Yale University intern who contracted HIV during training.
But outdoor the court, Koskoff changed into additionally “notably a laugh, notably thrilling and pretty engaged with the folks that were with him,” stated Rosen, a pal of 50 years who remained in near touch.
The attorneys last noticed this beyond the weekend, whilst Koskoff turned it into a sanatorium bed. Although Koskoff became very unwell, Rosen stated, “There changed into now not a hint of self-pity.”
“He turned into completely himself. He turned into smiling, and he became engaged,” Rosen stated. “He turned into too engaged in the global and his own family and pals and ideas and matters that interested him to have room for self-pity.”
Koskoff has been an ordeal for legal professionals since 1966. He spent his early days as a legal professional alongside his father, Theodor, protecting the Black Panthers. He recently joined his son Josh in representing numerous of the Sandy Hook households in their lawsuit in opposition to gun maker Remington Arms Co. LLC.
In his position as a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, Koskoff became friends with the organization’s president, Joseph Power Jr., of Chicago-primarily based Power Rogers and Smith, who said the Connecticut lawyer “usually becomes there for the little man.”
“He turned into such an awesome attorney. He ought to do a malpractice case, a trucking case, a defamation case, and he’d tackle gun makers. He’d tackle everybody. Mike was fearless,” Power stated.
Power stated the ultimate saw Koskoff on a video convention in February, at some stage in one of Koskoff’s closing assignments—the Sandy Hook case, along with his son.
“He joined us from a conference room in the health center. You’d in no way know Mike was within the hospital as he was so complete in life,” Power said. “He becomes so funny and has a splendid sense of humor. He just had this presence approximately him. He knew human beings so well. He was insightful and took dedication and energy, and perception into something he pursued.”
Koskoff additionally dabbled in the movies. Along with another son, Jacob, he wrote the screenplay for “Marshall,” which has become a major motion picture about a case early in the career of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and highlighted the racial injustice of the time.
