The Real Suits: Champions for the Injured – Ep. 2 Bob Mongeluzzi

Bob Mongeluzzi, a legendary lawyer in Philadelphia, sits down with long-time friend and partner, Larry Bendesky. Bob discusses his background, his many construction accident cases, and his love of lacrosse. He shares the importance of making construction sites safer and his ongoing efforts to educate others in the field. Bob also highlights two signature cases – the Salvation Army building collapse and a product liability case involving baseball helmets. He emphasizes the value of storytelling and theme in trial advocacy, and the importance of continuing to learn and improve as a lawyer.

 

Larry: Hello, everybody. Welcome to “The Real Suits: Champions for the Injured,” using our platform here at Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky to highlight the work we do, our experience in handling cases on behalf of clients, to introduce you to ourselves and to our partners, and tell you a little bit about what we do and our client stories. If you enjoy listening to this episode, please feel free to click the Subscribe button and share with your family and with your friends.

It is my great pleasure to have my great friend and business partner Bob Mongeluzzi with us. Bob Mongeluzzi is truly one of the legendary lawyers in the history of Philadelphia. Just a few of his accomplishments. He is a member of the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame, which is a really big deal. He was the Lawyer of the Year twice for the Best Lawyers in America in Philadelphia. He has every year been listed in the Best Lawyers of America, and he is the recipient of the Justice Michael A. Musmanno Award, which is the highest award given by the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association.

He is known throughout the country as the finest construction accident lawyer in not just the country, in the world. He has taught to other lawyers all over the country about how to handle construction site accidents, and most importantly, in addition to representing all his clients, he has taught other lawyers and has made a concerted effort to make construction sites safer for everybody that works in construction sites across America. Bob, thank you for being here.

Bob: Thanks. I hope this could be like inside the NBA so we could have a lot of fun and laughs doing this. Are you going to be Shaq and I’d be Barkley, or vice versa?

Larry: You take your pick. So tell us a little bit about your background, where you grew up, and what you liked to do when you were a kid.

Bob: Sure. I grew up on Long Island, or, as they would say there, Long Island. I was born in Brooklyn. We moved out to Huntington on the North Shore of Long Island when I was 6 months old. I went to four years of Catholic school and then moved over to public school in fifth grade. Graduated Huntington High School in 1974. I was probably thought of as a jock. Played football, basketball, and lacrosse there. I was recruited to play lacrosse in college and went to the University of Pennsylvania, where I played both lacrosse and sprint football.

Larry: So you’ve mentioned lacrosse twice, and I don’t know of anybody that’s more passionate about lacrosse than you are. How’d you get into it?

Bob: I literally was standing in the outfield trying out for ninth grade baseball with my best friend Jim Burke. It was a sort of dreary day. There were like 40 people standing in the outfield because everybody was trying out and you get like three swings of the bat. And on the field next to us, they were playing lacrosse, and I didn’t even know what the game was. I had never seen it before. And I looked at my best friend, and I said… It was a Friday, I remember. I said, “I’m gonna go out for lacrosse.” And he goes, “I am too.”

So we went home that night. Spoke to our parents. Now had to go out and buy sticks. So we got on our bikes, we biked down to Huntington Village. We went to the combination sporting good toy store, toy town, to buy lacrosse sticks. So we walked in and talked to the salesperson and said we want to buy lacrosse sticks. He goes, “What position do you play?” We were like, “We don’t even know what positions there are.” So he goes, “Do you play street hockey?” My friend Jimmy goes, “Yeah, I play defense.” He goes, “Okay, here’s a defense stick.” He said, “What about you?” I said, “In street hockey, I play goalie.” He goes, “Okay, here’s a goalie stick.”

So I go to my first practice, I go out for goalie, and they probably score 100 goals in a row. And on the 101, a guy is catching a pass over his shoulder. I run out of the cage, knock him on his butt, and the coach looks at me and goes, “Defense.” And that started my lacrosse career as a defenseman which has been a source of great pleasure for me. Very rewarding. I was able to play in college. I played club which was the equivalent of the pro game for 11 years. Then I coached that team which was one of the best teams in the world for five years. And then stopped coaching the best players in the world so that I could coach my then second grade son, Andrew, who’s in the room. And that was just an absolute joy. I coached him from second through 12th grade.

Took a hiatus and about seven years ago started coaching young women. I felt it was really important that I switch to the woman side. I grew up in a lacrosse hotbed. Huntington High School was one of the dominant programs on Long Island. I graduated in ’74. We didn’t have a girls team. They didn’t have the same opportunity that I had. And so when I went back about seven years ago, I wanted to make sure that young women had the same opportunity that I have because that brought me to college and taught me a lot of things, created a lot of friendships, which I would like them to have that same opportunity.

Larry: So what are you doing with the young women that you’re teaching and coaching?

Bob: Yeah, it’s sort of unique. I teach them how to dodge and shoot. There are a whole bunch of club teams, youth programs. They play games, they teach them plays, but nobody teaches really the fundamental skills of lacrosse, and that’s really what I focused on. I’ve got probably 30 to 40 girls now in college that are playing. Great young women, including some of the best players in the United States, multiple All-Americans. It’s been really rewarding.

During the pandemic, all the club programs were shut down, the high school programs were shut down, and there were a group of five young women who we just found each other and started working two, three times a week. A group I call my Fab Five who’ve just really flourished in college both as academically and athletically.

Larry: So I mean, and it doesn’t stop there. I mean, I know talking to you, they get to college, you’re still talking to them, mentoring them.

Bob: Yeah. I mean, there’s one who’s in the NCAA playoffs today, we just texted last night back and forth about aspects of her game and her mindset. So that’s great. The college girls come back in the summer and will play with the high school players that I coach. So it’s a great thing, it continues.

Larry: So what attracted you to lacrosse when you and your buddy Jimmy were looking at the field, is that still something that attracts you to the sport?

Bob: Yeah, I mean, I truly believe lacrosse is the sport that requires the most athleticism. It requires speed and quickness, and agility, and hand-eye coordination. The ability to hit and take a hit, intelligence, conditioning, endurance, it really requires all of that, so it’s always been my favorite sport since I started playing. And I played football and basketball in high school.

Larry: So it is clear that you have a tremendous passion for lacrosse. Are you passionate about anything else in your life?

Bob: Well, if you go through the back of this office and maybe the camera could do a quick little run-through, I’m an avid Bruce Springsteen fan. I’ve seen him 285 times and counting. If you go to the back of the office, here we have literally the greatest collection of high-end collectible Springsteen photographs in the world. Those are going to be going to the Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music, which is a museum that’s being built on the campus of Monmouth University in North Jersey, not far from Asbury Park. There’s going to be a wing of the photographs that are here. So, in 2026, we will be taking them from our office and giving them for the world of Springsteen fans to see. So I’m a big Bruce fan.

Larry: I know you are, but you’ve never seen him in concert, right?

Bob: So my first concert, there’s a line from Springsteen’s song “The River” that says, “And for my 19th birthday, I got a union card and a wedding coat,” and for my 19th birthday, my father got me two front row seats to see Bruce Springsteen and the East Street Band at the Westbury Music Fair, which is a theater in the round, very much like Valley Forge Music Fair here. And I sat front row. And the show was the night of my 19th birthday. So when hardcore Springsteen fans ask me, you know, “What was your first show?” It’s pretty easy for me to remember my birthday, so I never get that one wrong.

Larry: And you’ve seen him since then, right?

Bob: Yeah.

Larry: How many times?

Bob: Two eighty-five.

Larry: Okay. You mentioned your dad. What kind of relationship did you have with him?

Bob: My dad was my idol, always has been. Died 2 years ago at age 100, and he made it to 100 at a great family celebration. He was born in Long Island City. His grandparents were immigrants from Italy. Lived a hard life. Grew up in a little apartment that didn’t have its own shower or bathtub. Showered at the public baths once or twice a week. Put together zippers when he was starting at age 7. After he came home and did his homework, he’d work for two or three hours to bring extra money in to the family till his fingers bled.

Graduated, joined the Navy, served our country in World War II. Worked in a factory manufacturing jet engines for the P-51 Mustangs that helped win the war. And came out, met my mom, got married, and then, with three kids, went to college at night. Became the first person in our family to ever graduate college while he was working as an accountant. So he was working as an accountant, he’s a father of three young kids, and he’s going to college at night. Pretty remarkable.

Then my brother was born. We moved out to Huntington. We were living in Brooklyn at the time. So we could grow up in the suburbs and not the inner city. And then commuted back and forth 6 days a week for the next 35 years. Hard worker…

Larry: Into the city.

Bob: Into the city. Into Manhattan. He was the CFO of Delman Shoes, which ran the women’s shoe outlets at Bergdorf Goodman, Bonwit Teller, and I. Miller. I started working at Bergdorf Goodman when I was a senior in high school in the summer to earn money for college. I continued that on summer breaks after my freshman, sophomore, and junior year and again my senior year. And then I applied to Fordham Law School, which is right in Lincoln Center 62nd and Columbus right on Central Park. And then I continued to work there to work my way through law school.

Larry: At Bergdorf?

Bob: At Bergdorf, selling women’s shoes. And as much as law school prepared me to be a trial lawyer, so did selling women’s shoes at Bergdorf Goodman.

Larry: How’s that?

Bob: Because you have to meet and connect with 20 people a day, 25 people a day, 30 people a day. You know, they say that all sales jobs are the same. You may be selling something different, but ultimately you’re selling yourself and your integrity, and your ability to connect. So I just thought that was really good training for me to become a trial lawyer.

Larry: So you became a trial lawyer. Did you start out working doing construction accident cases?

Bob: No, I started off at a big Wall Street firm, and I worked there for about a little more than a year. Up in New York City, I worked for Cahill Gordon & Reindel. They were one of the biggest firms in the world at the time. And I enjoyed it there. But I saw a 5th-year lawyer, 6-year lawyer, 7-year lawyer, 10-year lawyer having never tried a case. All my life, I wanted to be a trial lawyer from when I was 7 years old.

Larry: How come?

Bob: My aunt said it was because I could argue so well, but I was totally fascinated. There was a competitor show to “Perry Mason” called “Judd for the Defense,” and it was a lawyer show. This is in the early ’60s. And he would cross-examine somebody, and they would admit, “Yes, I’m the one who did the murder.” I mean, it was amazing to me that by just asking questions and making speeches that you could change the lives of people. And I was fascinated by that. As I got a little bit older, and I’m going to say I’m now like 13, 14 years old, I’d come home and watch “Divorce Court.” Judge Voltaire Perkins, by the way, Channel 9, New York. And I was fascinated by that, so I always wanted to be a lawyer, and I always wanted to be a trial lawyer.

Larry: So you worked at Cahill. How did you switch to doing what you’re doing?

Bob: So I had just gotten married at the time. My first wife was the daughter of a famous judge here in Philadelphia, and he and his wife wanted their daughter back. So their very good friend owned a personal injury firm here. He made an offer, obviously at their prodding, and I always wanted to do trial law, so moved to Philadelphia.

Larry: From New York?

Bob: From New York City.

Larry: Okay. And what did you start? You talked about, you know, sixth and seventh and eighth-year lawyers at Cahill who didn’t get a chance to do stuff. What is different about what we do?

Bob: Well, one of the things I learned at Cahill that I thought was really helpful here was the value of just intense preparation, which is what I spent a lot of time doing there. So I just sort of came to this firm and, for some reason, started working with Bob Daniels, who was the senior partner on some very big cases. And he was starting to let me start taking depositions, and I wanted to take as many depositions as possible. So while the average case might have 2 or 3 depositions, I was taking 15-20 depositions. It really helped me become better as a cross-examiner, but it really put the cases together better. That really started to launch my career.

And then I guess we had a case involving a injured construction worker, a dock builder, that we tried in federal court and won a verdict in a tough case. And two weeks later a dock builder was electrocuted when a crane hit a power line at the then Atlantic City Hilton Hotel, and we got the case because the union had thought, “Oh, my gosh, these guys had just handled another crane case on behalf of a construction worker.” So I launched myself into that. Two months, three months later, two more dock builders get electrocuted on the Salem River Bridge in Salem, New Jersey, and we got those cases. And I realized that there’s a ton of these cases out here.

I was a member of what was then called ATLA, the American Trial Lawyers Association, which was a plaintiff’s networking group. It was at the beginning, so we’re talking about mid-80s of what were called litigation groups where a bunch of plaintiff lawyers would come together and share information as defendants had been doing for decades. And I decided I wanted to start a crane group because there were all these crane accidents. So this is 1986. I’m 30 years old. I start this crane group and…

Larry: Which is a national group?

Bob: It’s a national thing because nobody else is doing it. And all of a sudden people started referring me crane cases because they figured if I ran the group I must know what I was doing. I sort of did, but certainly over the next three, four, five, six years as I began, and every crane case, almost every crane case is a construction case. So I began to get a ton of cases referred involving injured construction workers, particularly involving cranes, and that really began what was, you know, a specialty of construction accident and crane accidents, which continues to this day.

Larry: So, and you’re not just getting these cases, are you sharing information? Are you helping other lawyers around the country?

Bob: Exactly. We started to put together databases of defendants experts, their transcripts, the positions they were taking. We shared plaintiff experts, we shared documents, we shared injury statistics. So it was really to help any injured construction worker and their attorney. Many times in our business, lawyers who, even if they’re a personal injury lawyer, may not have experience handling a crane case, may not have experience handling a construction accident case. They are difficult, challenging cases that require a lot of money to put together, and there are some lawyers who don’t want to do that or don’t believe that they could do it, and they refer those cases here where they know they’re going to get top-notch representation and quite frankly phenomenal results.

Larry: And have you made a concerted effort to make construction sites safer across the country?

Bob: We have. I have lectured to construction companies and telling them that I want them to put me out of business. I would be happy if I never had to sit at the kitchen table with another widow whose construction worker husband was killed in an accident with their two or three little kids. I think I’m a really good lawyer, and I could certainly thrive elsewhere, and so my goal has always been to eliminate my very practice. And it’s gotten safer out there.

While there are still construction injuries and deaths, the rates have come down. As you know, we’re up here on the 52nd floor. As I look out and see construction occurring throughout the city, even from this height looking at those buildings going up, you can see the orange safety fencing around the perimeter to prevent people from falling off. Twenty-five years ago, you wouldn’t see it at all. It was the Wild West. And we have made construction sites safer for construction workers, and it’s one of the things about my career and working with you that I’m most proud about.

Larry: As am I. So tell us about some of the signature cases that you’ve handled.

Bob: I would say probably the case that has had the most notoriety would be the Salvation Army Building Collapse case. This was a case involving a building at 22nd and Market Street that was getting demolished to make way for a building project. It was owned by Richard Basciano who was a real estate developer. It was directly adjacent, and above it was four stories. There was a one-story Salvation Army thrift store on the corner directly next to it.

Basciano and his company STB hired Griffin Campbell as the demolition contractor. Griffin Campbell had worked for the previous 20 years on a soul food truck at Drexel campus. He had two or three days of experience in demolition, being the fourth guy in a four-man crew swinging a sledgehammer. He had absolutely no experience and knowledge of how to safely demolish a building. Never done it. Wasn’t aware of the standards, the rules, didn’t have proper equipment.

He hires a excavator operator by the name of Sean Benschop, and they start taking this building down. OSHA standards. OSHA is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Those are federal safety laws. There’s one for construction, the 1926 provisions, and there are specific rules as to how to safely demolish. They basically say two things. You have to take the building from the top down to the bottom. You can’t go from front to back, because if you go from front to back, you start undermining the foundation down below.

Part of my cross-examination of the world-famous defense expert structural engineer was about whether he had played a particular game where you take structural members out from the bottom until something collapses. And he knew what I was talking about, and the jury knew what I was talking about…

Larry: “Jenga.”

Bob: …which was “Jenga.” They were starting at the bottom rather than the top. You’re also not allowed to have more than one story unsupported at the same time, for the very reason if you look at this water bottle, that’s something that is high and narrow. It’s really easy to tip over, but something that’s wide is not. So the higher you go up without support, the more lateral instability you get. This demolition project was they were doing both. And that ultimately collapses, falls on top of the Salvation Army building, killing their customers and employees. So you may say, “So, why did you sue the Salvation Army considering it was their building that got crushed and someone else’s ill-advised demolition that did it?”

Larry: Why did you sue the Salvation Army under those circumstances?

Bob: Because Basciano’s business had sent emails and letters to the Salvation Army saying, “This project is proceeding dangerously because you won’t let us get up on your roof so that we could go over and push the debris our way.” And the Salvation Army refused to do it. Our theory was very simple, which is if you get warned of a danger, you have the obligation to check it out. So, interestingly, both our expert and the Salvation Army’s expert… And Salvation Army Thrift Store is a retail store. Their obligations are no different than if you were shopping at a Target or a Walmart or a grocery store. And when you think about where most claims occur in retail places, they occur in grocery stores. And they occur when someone slips on something on the floor. Our expert grew up in a grocery store, and their expert grew up in a grocery store.

Larry: Working at a young age.

Bob: Yeah, starting as the stock boy and then the assistant produce clerk, and then deli manager, and then assistant manager, and then manager, and then regional manager. And so our theory is pretty simple. If you get warned of a hazard, you ought to check it out. And the example that I used when cross-examining their expert was let’s go to the normal hazard in a grocery store. If someone comes over to the stockboy or one of the employees of the store and says, “There’s a spill in aisle five,” I said, “You know what happened, sir, don’t you?” And he said, “Yes.” I said, “What happens is this, ‘Vinnie, spill in aisle five. Vinnie, spill in aisle five.'”

Jury laughed. Okay? Every single person on that jury had been in a grocery store. Every single person had heard that over the loudspeaker. And every single person knew that if you get warned of a hazard in a retail store, that somebody needs to go check that hazard out. Is there a real hazard there? Is there a spill in aisle five? But when the Salvation Army got this warning, they never sent anybody out to check it out. They did hire an architect to go look, but the architect only went into their own building to photograph the interior walls. So, if in fact there was demolition next door that was dangerous, they wanted to protect their own butt and protect their own property damage claim.

What they never did was to check out, was this a danger, and could it… And they were warned, by the way, in the letter that there is a risk of an uncontrolled collapse and lives could be lost. So they never checked that out. And the battleground of the case was, okay, if they had checked it out, what would they have found? And we were able to prove by clear and convincing evidence based upon a couple of photographs that were taken pre-collapse that this was a dangerous and a legal job site, that those two key issues, pulling structural members out from the bottom like a “Jenga” game and more than one story unsupported, both existed for weeks before the collapse.

And after a 6-month trial, the longest trial in Pennsylvania history where more than 100 witnesses testified, jury came back and found the Salvation Army responsible. And after about a week of damage testimony, that case settled for $227 million.

Larry: Congratulations.

Bob: So that was also my greatest moment of my legal career.

Larry: Tell us about that.

Bob: So I’m cross-examining a major. The Salvation Army is set up like a bureaucracy, like a military bureaucracy.

Larry: Salvation Army.

Bob: Yeah, generals, colonels, majors, and I’m cross-examining a major in uniform, by the way.

Larry: So the Salvation Army has people in uniform who were in the courtroom.

Bob: In the courtroom every day. And we could talk about closing in a little bit. But so I’m cross-examining this major. He’s in uniform. He is a ordained minister. They are soldiers for God. And I’m cross-examining him hard over the emails and letter. And he’s starting to get frustrated, and I’m not backing down. I’m going after him even harder. And he lifts his finger up, and he says, “Mr. Mongeluzzi, this was a terrible tragedy. And I pray for the victims every night.” And I walk to him, put my hand on the bar of the court, and ask him quietly, “What are their names?”

And there was 10 or 15 seconds of dead silence, which in a courtroom feels like an hour. The jury is leaning forward. The judge is leaning forward. There’s like 50 people in the audience. It is dead stock still. The defense lawyers are looking at him. Everything just stops. And he finally stammers, “I read their names when it happened. I must have forgotten them. I pray for them generally.” And I just stare at him for like 10 seconds and then walk back to my table, look over my shoulder, and say, “I guess their names weren’t important enough to remember,” and sit down.

And that was the signature moment of the case. And it sort of crystallized our theory, which is the Salvation Army isn’t what they appear to be to you when you hear about this beloved charity. They’re actually way different than what you expect. And that moment crystallized it. And I think it was the seminal moment of the case.

Larry: You started to mention your closing.

Bob: So closing was really interesting because Basciano was represented by Dick Sprague. Dick Sprague has been for the most legendary lawyer in Philadelphia over the last 50, 75 years. If you were a lawyer who needed a lawyer, you hired Dick Sprague. If you were a judge who needed a lawyer, you hired Dick Sprague. If you were a sports figure who needed a lawyer like Allen Iverson, you hired Dick Sprague. If you were a Supreme Court justice, you hired Dick Sprague, a legendary guy. Short, tough, he’s 92 years old during this trial. He’s there every day.

Larry: And how old was Basciano?

Bob: Basciano was also 90.

Larry: Okay. And the first time in the history of the world that a 92-year-old represented a 90-year-old in the world.

Bob: Yeah, I’d say probably so. And Sprague, who has argued motions, but he hasn’t done any direct or any cross, or any opening, but he’s been there and now stands up to give the closing. So I was honored because I was selected out of all the plaintiff lawyers to give the first part of the opening and then to give the last part of the closing. And I now have to stand up after Dick Sprague. And I had given a lot of thought to what I was going to say, and this is what I said. “When it was time for Richard Basciano to protect the public by hiring an experienced, safe, and licensed demolition contractor, he hired the inexperienced, unsafe, unlicensed Griffin Campbell. But when it came time for Richard Basciano to protect himself and his money, he hired the legendary Dick Sprague.” And I walked right over to Sprague, put my hand down.

And then I went to the Salvation Army. “When it was the time for the Salvation Army to protect the public by sending their uniformed officers to 22nd and Market Street to check out the warnings that they got of an uncontrolled collapse which could kill their customers and employees, they sent nobody and did nothing. But when it came time to protect themselves and their money in this courtroom, they sent three uniformed officers to this courtroom every day for six months. Why are they doing it now, and why didn’t they do it then?”

And so it was a theme of when it was time. When I finally got to the end of the closing, I went back to the moment where the major couldn’t remember the names of the victims. And I told the jury at the very end when I recounted that, that he couldn’t remember their names. It’s now your time, and you should come back with a verdict where they will remember their names. And they did.

Larry: You mentioned the theme, when it was time. Do you theme a lot of cases? What do you think?

Bob: I do. I do. I think theme is really important. I think it’s part of storytelling. I’ve told this to many lawyers. I’m going to now link this back to Springsteen. If a trial lawyer has an extra hour and a half, two hours, they want to spend it to become a better trial lawyer. The single best thing I think they could do over that two-hour period is to watch Springsteen on Broadway. Because what you see is storytelling and theme and pacing and connection with an audience. And that’s something that he does so well.

I was taught how to use themes when I went back to law school in 1995. I graduated Penn in ’78. I graduated Fordham Law School in ’81. In ’94, I went to Temple, who was offering the then first LLM, Masters of Law, in trial advocacy in the history of, I guess, the world, the United States, obviously. And was part of that first class. And the late, great Herb Kolsby taught me and us the value of using a theme to storytell. And it’s been part of what I’ve done ever since.

Larry: You mentioned the LLM. Do you think it’s important for lawyers to continue to learn their craft…

Bob: Sure.

Larry: …to continue to get better?

Bob: I mean, we’re trial lawyers and the only advanced degree you can get… You’ve got to remember, in law school, they’re not really teaching you trial lawyering at all. You’re learning contracts. You’re learning property. You’re learning constitutional law, criminal law. You’re not learning how to be a trial lawyer. You’re not learning how to give an opening statement or a closing statement or how to cross-examine someone. That’s absent from law school. So this was the first really intense, focused trial advocacy program in the history of the United States. And I think it’s vitally important. And our firm has more lawyers who have gotten masters in trial advocacy than any firm in the world.

Larry: And we continue to pay for lawyers at our firm to do that. That’s important.

Bob: We do. We do. And so we have lawyers in the program now. I’m happy to say that Larry is a vital part of that. I’m still a part of it but not as vital as Larry is. He taught, I’m going to say, like 15 separate courses this year. I taught a couple. I still go back every year, though.

Larry: Yeah. I think it’s good for our lawyers. And I think you’re right, it’s good for everybody to have… Frankly, it’s good for everybody to have a perspective on what other people think. And in taking the class, you have to accept other people’s criticisms. “You should try this. You should do that.” Everybody gets kind of stuck in ways of doing things.

Bob: Yeah. I remember probably the most valuable thing that I learned in terms of criticism, I was doing a cross-examination early in that process and totally tore this doctor and this mock cross-examination to pieces. I mean, to pieces. And my professor looked at me and said, “Bob, I’ve been practicing law for close to 40 years, and I’ve never seen anybody destroy a witness more than you just did there.” He said, “But at the end of it,” he said, “I actually felt sorry for him and not for your client.” He goes, “You’ve got a world-class fastball.” He goes, “But let me tell you something, you’re in the big leagues now, buddy, and major league hitters hit world-class fastballs. You need a changeup, and you ought to think about trying it.”

And I was pissed off, but I took it to heart. And then I realized that I can’t go one speed. And you know what? If I change up speeds and I get to that one witness where the fastball is coming, it looks a lot faster, and the jury says, “This guy deserves it.” He didn’t do it to everybody. There’s a reason why. And it was great advice.

Larry: Even Sandy Koufax needed a curveball.

Bob: He did.

Larry: I know you’ve handled a lot of cases other than construction accident cases. You handle product liability cases as well. Is there a signature case that you’ve handled in terms of product liability?

Bob: There is. I think maybe, well, the Salvation Army case was vitally important to those people. And by the way, I testified in front of city council regarding changing the demolition regulations to make Philadelphia a safer place for demolition. And that was great. And Larry, I know that you’ve been a staunch advocate regarding biking safety here in Philadelphia and have made streets safer for bikers.

I handled a case, and it involved Kevin Allen. He was a baseball player, high school baseball player at Salesianum High in Delaware, gets hit on the side of his American baseball cap, ink plastic helmet. Goes to the bench, starts to get really groggy. They call an ambulance, they bring him to the hospital. He’s got a subdural hematoma left side of his brain. Has to have emergency brain surgery.

Larry: And that’s bleeding.

Bob: It’s bleeding. Yeah, it’s bleeding in his brain. They have to evacuate that, put shunts in. He ends up with partial paralysis of his right arm and leg, young guy, great kid. And we sued American baseball cap. Went down to Duke University to meet with an expert down there, James McElhaney, and we talked about helmets. And he looked at me and goes, “The baseball helmet is the easiest helmet in the world to design. You know exactly what’s going to hit it. You know it’s exact weight.” I think it’s 5 and an 8th ounce if I’m not wrong. “You know the maximum velocity that someone can throw it.” I think at that point the world record was like 102 or 103 miles an hour. He said, “I could sit down with one of my graduate students and calculate how much force that generates and how much padding you’re going to need.” This had like one eighth of an inch of padding.

We tested it. We found that at a direct side hit at about 60 miles an hour, you lost all the energy absorption. So anything that the helmet and that little padding was going to absorb was now gone. Everything else was going straight through your skull into your brain. Realized that you would need about three quarters of an inch of padding. By the way, you only need to put it on one side. You’re a batter. You’re facing the pitcher. It’s not like you have to have it on both sides. And we ended up resolving that case, settling that case. And most importantly, they changed their design. They went to larger shells so they could accommodate more padding. And because of that, I would say tens of thousands, or certainly thousands, of little league high school other players have been spared at least concussions and maybe brain injury because of that case.

Larry: It’s not just that manufacturer. It’s now widespread within the industry.

Bob: Correct. Everybody’s using it as they should. Rawlings uses that much padding. Everybody does now.

Larry: So let’s shift gears. What other things do you like to do besides, you know, Springsteen, Lacrosse, and law? You’re a movie lover?

Bob: I am a movie lover. I’ve probably seen “The Godfather” 150 times and “Goodfellas” probably the same amount of time.

Larry: What’s your favorite movie?

Bob: I’m torn between those two. I mean, I think probably “Godfather” is just a little bit better, but “Goodfellas” is sort of more topical, more current. So I could sort of see that one as well.

Larry: So what draws you into those movies?

Bob: It’s just watching the characters and watching, you know, to watch Michael Corleone develop, you know, from the younger brother scared kid to become the Godfather is like one of the greatest transformations in movie history. The baptism scene, as you and I have discussed, I think is the greatest scene in movie history.

Larry: And “Goodfellas?”

Bob: I mean, the Copa Banana scene of walking…

Larry: That’s unbelievable.

Bob: …with the camera, following…

Larry: Single take.

Bob: …a single take is just, I don’t know how they got that done. That’s just an amazing, amazing thing. I love both of those movies.

Larry: Okay. And other movies?

Bob: I’ve always been a fan of “West Side Story.” It’s Romeo and Juliet in New York City. And I’ve always loved New York City, and so that’s always been one of my favorites as well. Anytime that’s on and I see it, I’m going to watch it.

Larry: The original?

Bob: The original.

Larry: How was the Spielberg one?

Bob: Eh.

Larry: Not as good?

Bob: I don’t think so.

Larry: Yeah. And obviously you’re a huge lacrosse fan. You told us you played football. What are your favorite sports other than lacrosse?

Bob: Well, I mean, to watch, I mean, I’m an avid NBA fan. I’m an avid NFL fan. I’m a baseball fan, although I don’t go to as many games as you do, but I probably went to 15 last year. You probably went to 35.

Larry: I really like it.

Bob: So I’m a fan of that. I’m a fan of my son and his wife and their little baby Jackson, who’s two and three quarters almost right now.

Larry: But as big as a 6-year-old.

Bob: Yes. He’s like the size of a 5-year-old. And then my daughter, Davin, just had a baby girl, Casey, about five weeks ago. So we’re blessed with grandchildren. Life’s good.

Larry: So if Philadelphia could only have one sports team left, what sports team would that be?

Bob: I mean, for the public good, I’d have to say the Eagles, because otherwise the entire city would implode and sports radio would shut down.

Larry: I mean, that is true. I think Philadelphia is tied into the Eagles more than any of the other teams, as great and as important as the other teams are.

Bob: I mean, New York is pretty gaga right now over the Rangers and the Knicks, although they’ve had a bad week. And I am a Philadelphia fan. I’ve now lived here for two-thirds of my life. I’ve lived a third of it in New York. So I’m a Philly fan first, but if they don’t win, then I’m rooting for the New York team.

Larry: So, Bob, tell us about any other passions that you have in your life.

Bob: So I’m a collector. So if you go into my office, I’ve got, I think, probably the number one collection of lacrosse bronzes in the world. So most of them are Native American. Native Americans invented lacrosse. It was a very significant part of their life. It was a social exercise. They played games to honor someone who had died, births. And so I have probably a dozen or more. Those are going to go to the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame when I’m not around anymore.

Larry: All right. Thank you. Thank you for your time, Bob. I’d like to thank everybody who’s watching this podcast, “The Real Suits: Champions for the Injured.” If you enjoyed what you heard today, please feel free to click the subscribe button and share with your family and friends.

If you have any questions, please let us know. We want to, as great as this episode was, if there’s anything you want to hear, if there’s anything you want us to talk about, please let us know. Thank you so much for being with us.