From the gritty streets of Brooklyn, Steven J. Mandel worked his way through law school as a professional comedian and credits this experience with making him a successful trial attorney. He explains that in both fields, the lawyer/performer must be fully prepared, persuasive, quick-witted and able to relate to his “audience”.
Since 1987, Steve has provided his legal skills to the MS Society and received a special recognition award on the field before a NY Mets' game. He is also a member of the Board of Directors and Chief Legal Counsel for Ed Randall's Fans for the Cure.
Steve regularly appears as a legal analyst on local and national TV and his legal papers have been included in Matthew Bender's form books as an example of writing excellence for other attorneys.
Steve went to Adelphi University on a baseball scholarship. Although he received an invitation to try out for the Toronto Blue Jays, Steve decided his competitive spirit would best be served by becoming a lawyer and attended Cardozo School of Law from where he received a Doctor of Law degree in 1979.
Steve is a faculty member of the NY College of Matrimonial Trial Attorneys and prepares continuing education programs for lawyers. He received a perfect “10” rating from AVVO for “peer recognition and client satisfaction and Martindale-Hubbell awarded him a “AV Preeminent” rating, the “highest possible in both legal ability and ethical standards” and his “profile rating” in Jan. 2014 was #155 out of 92,395 lawyers in New York State #2,441 out of 1,504,487 nationwide, placing him in the top 99.84 percentile.
Even with this recognition, Steve measures success by the thoughtful “thank you cards” he receives from clients. He's been described as "the Picasso of the legal profession” because his creativity is a proven factor in obtaining major settlements and in overcoming obstacles to courtroom victory. Steve has a proven ability to keenly assess each client's situation and tailor an approach best suited to a successful outcome. For this reason, he has succeeded with what other lawyers might describe as "the un-winnable case".
