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Lawyer Who Couldn't Say No
June 16, 2004
By DAVID W. CHEN
New York Times
Thousands of lawyers helped Sept. 11 families. Many
accepted a family or two; a few took on as many
as half a dozen. But Daniel Kramer accepted about
two dozen cases that were submitted to the Sept.
11 Victim Compensation Fund - far more than anyone
else, according to a fund official.
Last
Friday, in fact, Mr. Kramer took on two more cases:
two Polish immigrants who said they were injured
while working on the pile at ground zero, but whose
claims were initially rejected.
Why
Mr. Kramer became known, in some circles, as the
lawyer who could not say no to a Sept. 11 family,
be they relatives of the dead, or the injured, may
be explained by a few factors. Mr. Kramer, 52, has
worked in the medical malpractice field for years,
specializing in obstetrics. He is good at connecting
with families in difficult circumstances; he quit
his job for several years to help care for his mentally
handicapped son, Brian.
So
when he heard about Trial Lawyers Care, a national
consortium of pro bono lawyers that ended up helping
more than 1,700 families win $2 billion from the
fund, he signed up immediately.
"It
was the right thing to do, it was a way to help
people, and it was my absolute distaste for lawyers
who charged," he said. "And every single
client that I met was amazing. They were just incredibly
strong people, dealing with incredible hardships."
Mr.
Kramer would meet his clients anywhere. In New York,
that often meant anywhere but ground zero. In New
Jersey, that often meant frequent cups of coffee
at 10 p.m. at the Suburban Diner on Route 17, not
far from his home in Paramus.
Mr.
Kramer feels that Kenneth R. Feinberg, the fund's
administrator, did a fine job. But he does not think
that the fund was a good idea in the first place,
because it favored the Sept. 11 victims over victims
of other terrorist acts, like the Oklahoma City
bombing in 1995.
His
work with the families, and his immersion in the
details of inexplicable heartbreak, will stay with
him forever. He said he would miss the work, as
well as the bonds he shared.
"It's
almost going to feel like that there's something
I'm not doing," he said.
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