Mike Bersani joined the firm in 1995, coming from the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, where he had clerked for 2 years after graduating Magna Cum Laude (top 5% of his class) from Syracuse University College of Law in 1993. He was a law review editor at the College of Law, and was inducted, for his outstanding legal scholarship, into the Order of the Coif and the Justinian Society, and was honored with the “Scribe Award” for outstanding legal writing.
Mike was recently named “Personal Injury Lawyer of the Year” for the Syracuse metropolitan area by the publication Best Lawyers in America. For a lawyer, being listed in Best Lawyers is something like getting a 10 in America's Got Talent. Those who determine who gets listed in Best Lawyers are judges and fellow lawyers who have seen the lawyer at work, watched him in court, or have reviewed his work. Only a few lawyers in each geographical area are elected to this prestigious attorney listing. But Mike’s recognition went even further than a mere “listing” in the publication: He was named “the Lawyer of the Year” in the field of personal injury litigation because other lawyers and judges gave him higher grades than any other personal injury lawyer in the Syracuse Metropolitan area.
Mike has the highest ranking (“AV”) in the prestigious Martindale–Hubbell directory. This “AV” rating means that judges and other lawyers have rated him, compared to other lawyers, “very high to preeminent in legal ability, expertise, experience, integrity and overall professional excellence.”
Mike has consistently been selected as Super lawyer by Law & Politics Magazine since the honor was first established. The title Super Lawyer is given only to those attorneys who are considered to be among the top 5% of all lawyers in the State of New York. Mike is also listed in The Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers, which includes only those select lawyers who have earned the highest rating in the Martindale–Hubbell Law Directory and have been designated by their colleagues as preeminent in their field.
Mike is also a member of the elite personal injury Million Dollar Advocates Forum. The Million Dollar Advocates Forum is one of the most prestigious groups of trial lawyers in the United States. Membership is limited to attorneys who have won million and multi–million dollar verdicts and settlements. Less than 1% of U.S. lawyers are members.
Mike is a highly respected legal writer and lecturer among personal injury and medical malpractice lawyers in New York State. Every year he travels all across New York State to lecture to his fellow lawyers on his annual “Update on Municipal Liability Law” under the auspices of the New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers. Mike is also a widely published author on personal injury law. He has published numerous articles in the New York State Bar Association Journal, the New York State Trial Lawyers “Bill of Particulars”, and the Syracuse Law Review, to name a few. One of his articles on the governmental immunity defense has been cited as authority by the Appellate Division Third Department. He is the Author of the chapter on Municipal Liability in the New York Bar Association Personal Injury Treatise (The Plaintiffs Personal Injury Action in New York State).
Before becoming a lawyer, Mike lived in Spain and France for 7 years, where he mastered both the Spanish and French languages, received a Master’s degree in Spanish from Middlebury College in Vermont, and spent several years teaching and translating English, Spanish and French. He also speaks basic Italian. He has many Spanish speaking personal injury clients.
Mike Bersani is also a community activist. He has served on the board of directors of Farm Workers' Legal Services of New York (providing free legal service to underserved agricultural workers) since 1998, has served as the chair of the Geneva Human Rights Commission, and has served as chair of the board of directors of the Auburn YMCA, as well as the chair of the board of directors of the Boys & Girls Club of Geneva, New York. He also volunteers for the Boys & Girls Club by taking the Club members for weekly swims at the YMCA in Geneva. He also provides free legal services to many Spanish-speaking migrant farm workers.
Because of his commitment to helping others less fortunate than him, Mike Bersani was named 2009 Citizen of Year by Geneva, New York Chamber of Commerce. Mike lives with his wife, Alejandra Molina, and their two children, Sebastian (1996) and Nico (1998) in Geneva, New York. He enjoys bicycling, running, competing in triathlons, reading and traveling. Mike is also a personal injury and medical malpractice “blogger”.
