My father, Seymour H. Eidman, passed away on July 5, 2019. After considering dentistry and flirting with a potential career in paleontology, my father settled into a long and productive career, mostly as a solo practitioner in Midtown Manhattan. Early on, he was a superb and fearless criminal defense attorney, even trying capital cases back when New York still had the death penalty. Eventually, he refocused his legal attention to the fields or plaintiff’s personal injury and medical malpractice work. Well before the days of the internet, he taught himself more medicine than he needed to know and through his people skills, became the best settlement negotiator I have ever seen.

After I started litigating and trying my own cases (and some of my father’s cases as well), he remained available to me and my clients and I was fortunate to be able to tap into his deep wells
of experience, insight and wisdom. Even now, some two and a half years after his passing, I sometimes have to stop myself from reaching for the phone, to call Dad in order to discuss a tough case.

As good as he was as a lawyer, my father’s interests and knowledge were spread far and wide, with particular expertise in the areas of American art, fishing and ragtime and swing jazz.
The last section of my new book, “Sketches of Sy & Other True Tales, includes many humorous and revealing stories about him.