General and Appellate Counsel to Parker Waichman LLP, Mr. Breakstone began his career at ABC Radio News in New York City. Since then, he has enjoyed wide experience in the law, both criminal and civil. For years now, he has limited his practice, concentrating solely on the prosecution and defense of plaintiff’s personal injury appeals, arguing cases in state and federal courts throughout the country. Mr. Breakstone deals with individual appeals as well as those in complex Class Actions and Multi-District Litigation, advising and writing on such diverse issues as medical device/drug liability, firearms liability, consumer credit responsibility, attorney’s fee litigation, and the liability of the United States towards soldiers injured as a result of government negligence. Most recently, he penned one of the winning briefs in the Second Circuit that overturned the largest class action settlement in United States history.
Not only a skilled appellate advocate, Mr. Breakstone is a prolific writer and lecturer for members of the Bar. He has over 300 reported appellate decisions to his credit. As a member of the Bar of the United States Supreme Court, Mr. Breakstone takes special pride in sponsoring and personally moving the admission of fellow attorneys before the Court in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Breakstone is presently vice-chair of AAJ’s Appellate Practice Litigation Group as well as vice-chair of the ABA’s Appellate Advocacy Committee of the Tort, Trial and Insurance Practice Section. He is admitted to practice in New York, the Supreme Court, and in the Second, Third, Eighth, Ninth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals.
Mr. Breakstone is active in community affairs and has served for over 20 years as an elected member of the Board of Trustees of the Bellmore (Long Island) Union Free School District. He has also served as President of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association, representing 125 school districts on Long Island, New York, and in 2018 received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York State School Boards Association. Dedicated to public education, Mr. Breakstone has been described as “a powerful force not only in his home district, but also across Long Island and even New York state.”
