The Real Suits: Champions for the Injured – Ep. 4 Andrew Duffy

Andrew Duffy, prominent trial lawyer and the current president of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association, sits down with Larry Bendesky to share his journey from college pole vaulter to a member of the Navy Jags Corp and becoming a trial lawyer. Drew recalls some of the important cases he’s worked on, including the duck boat catastrophes in Philadelphia and Branson, Missouri. He also discusses the importance of protecting access to justice and fighting for the rights of injured victims.

 

Larry Bendesky
Welcome to the Real Suits, Champions for the Injured. Using our platform here at Salt Mongeluzzi Bendesky to tell you about the cases that we’ve handled and meet some of the people that we work with. Again, as we’ve said before, if you enjoy listening to this episode, please feel free to click the subscribe button and share with us your thoughts, share with your family and friends. We’d love to hear your feedback.

It is our great pleasure today to have my friend, business partner, colleague, Drew Duffy with us today. Drew is one of the great lawyers in the city of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He is going to be the president of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association starting on July 1st, which is an awesome responsibility. We’ll talk to Drew about that.

We’re going to talk to Drew about his upbringing, his motivations, the reason he became a lawyer and some of the cases he’s worked on. Drew, it is great to have you here today.

Drew Duffy
It is my pleasure to be here.

Larry Bendesky
So tell us a little bit about yourself, where you grew up, what you did when you were a kid.

Drew Duffy
I was a South Jersey kid. I grew up pretty much playing street hockey, running around with friends.You know, back in the 80s and 90s, nothing fun was inside the house. Everything fun was outside the house. It’s the complete opposite of what my kids are going through today. So we’re out playing sports, procrastinating the schoolwork, and just having a lot of fun.

Larry Bendesky

Did you always want to be a lawyer?

Drew Duffy
I didn’t always want to be a lawyer. I found out that my sporting talent was not even close enough to ever do anything in that respect. And the only two real talents that I ever thought I could be successful at was arguing and public speaking. And I was very fortunate that I didn’t grow up with anybody in my family who was a lawyer. There’s some extended cousins that came before me. But I was fortunate enough in the neighborhood to, once I got to high school, to meet some lawyers that kind of took me under their wing and explained to me what they did. And then you see the lawyering on TV and the Perry Mason moments that you’re like, wow, I wish I could do that in a courtroom. And that really captivated me. Around halfway through college I decided I wanted to go to law school.

Larry Bendesky
And where’d you go to college?

Drew Duffy
Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland. I went there for track. My father had gone there and I was all about going there to be a pole vaulter.

Larry Bendesky
How’d you become a pole vaulter?

So one of my best friends at age 13 was a pole vaulter. We were over at the University of Pennsylvania. Used to have a bubble right there on 76 West and you’d practice indoor track in the bubble in the winter. My father was the Long Island State mile champion. So my father bred me to be a distance runner.

And then one day I’m working out as a distance runner in the Penn bubble and my best friend is over at the pole vault pits. And all of the young ladies were around him at the pole vault pits. And immediately my mind said, you know, that is much cooler than what I’m doing right now. I want to do that. And I got to tell you, all hell broke loose in my family. Yeah. My father was not happy.

Larry Bendesky
So I’m always curious and I see it with the skateboarders the first time you pole vault, how do you do it the first time? Were in a bubble? Are you bubble wrapped at the time? How do you do the first pole vault?

Drew Duffy
You’re not bubble wrapped at all and you come running down and you have to plant the end of the pole that has this rubber plug at the end of it. They’re fiberglass poles and you have to plan it into a slanted box. It hits the end of the box and it’s designed to propel you. It’s supposed to bend the pole as everybody’s seen on video clips. When you first do it, you don’t bend the pole. You just kind of run and you just kind of fall into the pit. And then as you get better, stronger, you bend the pole and the pole actually shoots you up.

Fast forward to my first Division I track meet. I am at the University of Delaware. My college was in Maryland, so we come up to the University of Delaware. So I have my parents, my sister and brother. I have my cousins who go to the University of Delaware. I have my cousin’s boyfriends. I must have had about 16 to 20 people there rooting me on. The height that is supposed to win the meet is a height that I can do. I could potentially win this meet as a freshman. So I take a couple warmup jumps. My third warmup jump, I go up, I bend the pole. I get inverted, the pole snaps right in half. Fiberglass blows apart in the middle. And it literally sends me into the metal stanchion that holds up the crossbar. I get knocked out. My mother’s a nurse. I wake up in the training room in a body cast, looking at my mother, asking her, did I win? She said, no, honey, you did not even place. You’re here with a potentially broken leg. So that was my first Division I college track meet.

Larry Bendesky
And you didn’t quit pole vaulting?

Drew Duffy
I did not quit pole vaulting. Although I got to tell you, freshman year I was OK, sophomore year I got better, junior year I was getting much better. And then all of sudden, the worst thing that could happen to a pole vaulter happened. I got accepted to law school.

And then as soon as you start thinking about your future as a pole vaulter where you literally have to unscrew your cranium and leave your brain at the end of the runway and just run as fast as you can with reckless abandon. As soon as you start thinking about your future and getting injured, you’re done. And so I was in rapid decline after that moment.

Larry Bendesky
And do you think being a pole vaulter says anything about your personality? Risk-taking, just kind of going on, not necessarily on the edge, but anything about, you know, what’s involved in being a pole vaulter that translates to who you are.

Drew Duffy
Well, it’s when I was a distance runner, you build your endurance. When you’re a pole vaulter, you have to get stronger and faster and stronger and faster. And I wanted to get stronger and faster. You also have to be extremely technically adept, meaning that you literally run 106 feet, 11 inches, because you have to time your stride so that you’re hitting the end of that box in a perfect stride so you can propel forward, put all the energy into that pole. And it’s a highly, highly technical event, and everything has to go right.

So I love the fact that you spent your training getting stronger and faster. I love the technical aspect. And it translated well for the rest of life. Every day you wanted to improve. Every day you wanted to get stronger at something. And every day you got to make sure that technically you’re sound. And so that’s what pole vaulting taught me.

Larry Bendesky
And you went to law school. You said growing up you knew you were great at arguing, were great on your feet. Obviously, you connect with people really well. Did you always want to be a trial lawyer?

Drew Duffy
I did. I knew that immediately, when you take that first contracts class, you’re grinding to hope to get that B minus because you know that this isn’t me. And then when I took the trial advocacy classes, that’s when I was really excited to be in school. That’s when it wasn’t work anymore. That’s when you’re like, okay, I really like this. This is something I can do. This is something I can do. This is something I want to do. I love the fact that everybody says that their greatest fear is public speaking. And to be able to reverse that and make it a career is something we’re all proud of as trial lawyers.

Larry Bendesky
So you didn’t go right into a plaintiff’s firm, though, correct?

Drew Duffy
I did not. I went a very different route. Out of law school, I applied to several jobs, was fortunate enough to get a lot of offers, but the one job I really wanted was the hardest job to get. You know, that was my application to the United States Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps, known as the JAG Corps. Surprisingly, I’ll be honest, surprisingly, even though I had very good grades, I got in. And I had always been a huge fan of my grandfather, my maternal grandfather. And he would tell me stories about being in the Navy in World War II. Story after story, I was captivated by these stories. And I just saw how proud he was to have served. And he would always ask me if I thought about it.

I’ll never forget, I got in, and then that day, I ran to a payphone and called my grandfather. I didn’t share with him that I had applied, but I said, I’m going into the Navy. I got into the Jag Corps. I’m not going to be a gunner’s mate on a frigate out in the middle of World War II, but I’m going to follow in your footsteps in some way. So that was a great moment.

Larry Bendesky
So what did you do in the Jag Corps?

Drew Duffy
I actually started out as a tort claims defense attorney So my first they call it a bill it a bill It is just a job in the Navy and my first job was to whenever the Navy got sued for you know a Navy naval vehicle running a red light or some type of environmental exposure I would defend the Navy and it’s kind of like that contracts class. I wasn’t getting enough courtroom time. And so I asked to become a criminal defense attorney because I quickly found out in the Navy that the criminal defense attorneys had complete and full autonomy. They didn’t have any puppeteers. They didn’t have anybody to really answer to. You just went to you and your client and you mounted your defense and you took it to trial. And that’s what I wanted to do.

Larry Bendesky
And were your clients people who had violated Navy standards, were court -martialed and within the naval system?

Drew Duffy
Exactly. So then all of the branches of the military are microcosms of society. And within each branch, there is a system of justice. And instead of going to a criminal trial, you go to a court’s marshal. And so same rules of evidence, same presentation. The only difference is you have a jury of your peers, but a jury of your peers is defined as fellow naval members that either are of the same rank or outrank you. So that is the only real difference.

During my three years in the JAG Corps, must have tried, handled, 125 cases and I was just it was kind of like being in a DA’s office you were just in court day in day out day in day out and I love that because You really got a chance to hone your skills And obviously great training for what you what you do now and I think that gave me a really good base to to have the confidence that you need to to project your clients case in the courtroom.

Larry Bendesky
You didn’t but you didn’t go straight to a plaintiffs firm after that, correct?

Drew Duffy
I went to the Temple University LLM in trial advocacy. I got a scholarship related to the Navy to go to that. I joined the Navy, see the East Coast. I was in Newport, Rhode Island. Then I was at a sub base in Groton, Connecticut. And then they asked, hey, we have this horrific job that somebody has to take in Naval Weapon Station Earl in Colts Neck, New Jersey, Monmouth County. So I volunteered for it. And I volunteered and they put me in that area and I volunteered because that would give me a close enough distance to Temple to commute and take this program.

And that program was the best thing I ever could have done because throughout the program, it’s a year. And students are assigned to do an opening or do a closing. And probably four or five weeks into the program, I’m assigned to do an opening. And I do my opening and thank God I really prepared for it because the judges were one prominent plaintiffs attorney who we just lost, rest his soul, Herb Kolsby, and another prominent defense attorney who we lost a couple years ago, Bill O ‘Brien.

And just lucky that afterwards I did my opening and they came up and both of them offered me a job. Right there. Right there. I don’t, I did not know that. And, and then it didn’t work out. I wanted to go to plaintiff’s work and then it didn’t kind of work out with Mr. Kolsby, but it did work out with Bill O ‘Brien. Who’s a legendary lawyer in Philadelphia history.

To be able to learn from him and see how he litigated cases was just outstanding because it gave me, looking back, it gave me a sense of the other side, how these cases are defended, how they prepare their defense. And working with him was just spectacular. I did that for about three and a half years. And then he had a case, there’s a famous case for which they made a movie called Fox Catcher. And that is John Luther Ray DuPont just inexplicably one day shot a very famous Olympic champion wrestler, David Schultz, three times in the back after DuPont had established basically a wrestling camp at his house in Delaware County, this huge estate. One of my first assignments was to be on the team in the civil defense, not criminal, the civil defense of John DuPont.

On the other side was a very, very famous attorney named Jerry Litvin. On the plaintiff’s side. Representing the family of Schultz. Yes, and another one named Jerry McHugh. And I got to know them, and then their firm had an opening with some other attorneys there, and I interviewed for that and got that job, and that’s how I started the plaintiff’s work.

Larry Bendesky
We talked about you connecting with people. Even though you worked in the JAG Corps and then you worked for a defense firm, was your ultimate goal to do the work that we do now?

Drew Duffy
Absolutely. I grew up with regular people. I didn’t grow up with a bunch of Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 CEOs. I want to help regular people. And what we do and what I’ve done for 23 years now, is we meet people on literally shortly after the worst day of their lives, whether they lost a loved one, or lost their ability to provide for their family with a catastrophic injury. And to be able to put all of our effort, hard work and talents into changing their lives. I think that makes so much more of a difference than

Saving an insurance company money I have nothing bad to say about the other side. I was there. I think that everybody deserves a defense but you know to be doing what we’re doing and representing catastrophically injured people and truly having the ability to change lives.

Larry Bendesky
I’m really proud to tell people that you’ve been here at Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky for 20 years. So tell us about the cases that you’re most proud of.

Drew Duffy
If anybody would have told me in law school that I would have developed a duck boat niche I would have kind of smiled at you and said what’s a duck boat? Back in 2010 Bob Mongeluzzi and I handled the duck boat catastrophe that happened in Philadelphia.

And what happened in that case is there was a contest in Hungary in the high schools. Literally the best high school academic performers won a trip to New York and Philadelphia. And so on this trip were 34 wonderful students from Hungary seeing New York and Philadelphia for the first time. They go up to New York. They come down to Philadelphia. On that day, it happened to be one of literally the hottest days in Philadelphia. The thermometer hit about 103. And these duck boats, people remember them, they were in Olde City. They look like this amphibious type vehicle. They look like a half boat, half car. And that’s what they do. They go around, they first do this land tour of all of the Old City tourist sites. And then they splash down on a ramp into the Delaware River.

And they do a quick circular sea tour. And so on that particular day, the evening before that particular day, the duck boat company had a mechanic who was hired two weeks before and was performing his first inspection of the duck boats, which was done every night after they’re used. And he opened the hood of the duck boat, number 34. He unscrewed the radiator cap. Claims to have gotten distracted, he walks away, he comes back, he checks everything else out and he closes the hood, leaving the radiator cap in the engine compartment, not put back on the radiator. So the next morning that duck boat goes out, it has two tours, it goes around Philadelphia as it gets hotter and hotter and hotter. All of the antifreeze starts to evaporate out.

The Hungarian students get on the third trip of the day. On the third trip of the day, they go around, they do the tour, they splash down into the Delaware. They get into the Delaware, no fluid left in the radiator. It starts to overheat and you get that steam. The captain thinks it’s a fire. He institutes the fire procedures. The fire procedures are to turn everything off. You literally shut it down. And then you anchor immediately and you wait for a tow. He does that unbeknownst to the captain that when he shuts everything off, both the horn and the radio, Larry, are tied to the ignition. So he can’t call anybody and he can’t signal his horn. He tried to call people. He was talking into a microphone that just wasn’t working. He thought that everybody else was hearing him.

So as they’re sitting there after they anchored, and by the way, the anchor line was too long, so they drifted and they ended up sitting there in the middle of the Delaware River shipping lands. Another duck boat, duck boat 42, comes up to him and says, hey, you guys need a tow. And he says, no, no, we’re good. We called in the tow boat. They’re going to come out and help us out. Literally a mile down river there is a tugboat. That tugboat is hauling a 293 foot sludge barge. And that tugboat is on the side of the barge. So you have to be all the way up in the top of the tugboat called the upper wheelhouse in order to see down the river when you’re looking because the barge sits so high in the water. If you go down to the lower wheelhouse right in the middle of the tugboat, you can’t see anything.

So there’s a bunch of guys in the galley eating. There’s a bunch of guys sleeping and there’s one first mate who is on the tugboat. He’s operating the whole tugboat. He is up in the upper wheelhouse. He gets a call from his wife. Their seven year old son that morning was undergoing an emergency eye operation. It was supposed to be routine and in and out. His wife tells him that during the operation is someone’s deprived of oxygen for seven minutes.

So he, like any other father, panics, leaves the upper wheelhouse, goes down to the lower wheelhouse. He hears all this radio chatter. He’s talking to his wife on his cell phone that he’s not supposed to really be using. He turns the radio off so he can hear his wife. Eventually, on the radio was where other ships were saying, hey, duck boat, duck boat, watch out, duck boat in your lane. So he’s then using the company computer to Google hypoxia and deprivation of oxygen. But now, since he’s in the lower wheelhouse, since he turned the radio off, he’s not seeing what’s going on. He’s going down towards the duck boat, blind and deaf, and he puts it in autopilot.

So there is just this horrific footage of a sludge barge not capsizing the duck boat literally running it over and pushing it down and these duck boats we referred to as death traps. Many years before in 1999 there were 13 people killed in Hot Springs Arkansas when a duck boat sank.

These duck boats were designed for World War II for the purpose of just transporting soldiers and sailors from ships to invade land, they were used in Normandy. And they were supposed to be discarded at the beaches. They have no buoyancy whatsoever. We’ve all seen those commercials for like Boston Whaler. We could literally cut a Boston Whaler boat in half, and it’s filled with styrofoam in the hull. It’s unsinkable.

Duck boats are the complete opposite. Duck boats are made of metal. They have no buoyancy. They are easily swamped and they sink like a rock. On top of that, as part of the tourist gimmick, they installed a fixed canopy that has canvas on top of metal stanchions on top of the boat. So with that fixed canopy, when the duck boat’s sinked, you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t, meaning that if you have your life jacket on, you are immediately thrust.

When you hit the water up into the canvas of the canopy, and then you have to try to work your way out. And then if you’re not wearing your life jacket, you sink and you’re pulled down with the duck boat. And tragically, that’s what happened to our two Hungarian students. They both lost their lives.

They were both only children of each family. Bob Mongeluzzi and I went over to Hungary after the family had asked us to represent them. They wanted to meet us, so we made the 3,000 mile trip over there, absolutely. And I’ve never met stronger families in my life. They were just amazing, amazing people. So that sort of put us on the track of being nationally known for duck boat litigation.

And then, of course, there was the even more tragic Branson, Missouri duck boat case that killed 17 people that we were lead counsel on later. So those are the two cases that I’m most proud of. We’ve represented so many wonderful clients and I’m proud of them all. But for those two cases, we made meaningful change in that we drove the duck boat industry out. They’re only still in Boston on the Charles River and some in Wisconsin, but we made real change in that and educated the public that these duck boats are so dangerous, especially for children.

They are no longer in Philadelphia at all. They’re basically priced out of the insurance market. Their risk became too high.

Larry Bendesky
But it was you and Mongo bringing the lawsuit and putting these dangers to light that played an impact in getting them off the streets and off the rivers.

Drew Duffy
Absolutely. And I can’t tell you how many people came up to me during those cases and said, boy, they’re advertised as these fun and game type of boats to go on. And it looks like it’s a safety last situation. Had I known what you just said on the news about the duck boats, I never would have taken my children on them. And we’re seeing that more and more. And the duck boat industry has adapted, too.

They’ve basically created duck boats that are buoyant, that do float like those Boston Whaler boats. And so they made them safer. And that’s our goal in every case.

Larry Bendesky
Without the canopy that when you’re wearing a life jacket, you kind of go up into and you’re trapped at that point.

Drew Duffy
Correct. They still have canopies, but they made them so that the hull of the boat cannot take water. I mean, in the Branson, Missouri duck boat case it was allowing a duck boat to go out during a major once in a hundred year storm. But even in that storm, which was only on a lake in Missouri. So you’re not talking 30 foot swells in the Atlantic and a nor ‘easter. You’re talking two to three foot waves that took that boat down. That’s embarrassing in the boating industry. That’s like saying, hey, we just made an electric vehicle that has two miles of range.

Larry Bendesky
So tell us about the Raphael Robb case that you and Bob tried.

Drew Duffy
Yeah, the Raphael Robb case was one of the just tragic cases from a just a pure evil perspective. Raphael Robb was an extremely well-known Penn professor.

He was a professor of game theory. So he would literally work with the Pentagon and plan out war games and think out different scenarios and which way to go with whatever scenario evolves. His wonderful wife, when they both have a 12-year-old daughter. Daughter is at school. His wonderful wife is wrapping Christmas presents.

They were contemplating and then ultimately his wife decided to go see a divorce attorney. So they were about to get divorced. He then decides that a divorce is not what he wants. He grabs a metal object, goes up to her from behind and beats her to death with that object. And the scene was one of the worst scenes you could ever imagine. Just blood spatter everywhere.

He beat her into an unrecognizable state.. He was not convicted by a jury He was given a plea deal and the plea deal was extremely controversial. They thought that he got a very low sentence. And so the family wanted to bring a civil action, which you’re able to do whenever there is a criminal action, you’re able to bring a corresponding civil action. You’ve seen it in many cases of notorious murders, especially involving affluent murders, just like we saw in the John DuPont case.

And so we brought that case and Raphael Robb took the position that, have at it. I have a 401k plan. I have a pension plan. You can’t, I’m untouchable. I’m judgment proof. All of those are protected by federal law. You can’t get to them. So we said, okay, game on. And so we went to trial. I’ll never forget, I put on the stand his daughter who was 20 at the time I put her on the stand. It’s eight years after the murder. He’s done his time at that point or a portion of his time at that point. He’s still in jail because we went with the family every year to his parole hearing and advocated for him to stay in jail.

We’re with this family through the end to make sure that justice was served for them. So I put his daughter on the stand. First question I ask her is, you walked in here, you saw your father. When was the last time you saw your father? And she said, the night he murdered my mother, eight years ago, hadn’t seen him since. And so then Bob Mongeluzzi put Rafael Robb on the stand. And I’ll never forget his first two questions. Sir, you are a killer. And a liar, correct Raphael Robb said he sounded like Gru from Despicable Me. Killer, yes. Liar, yes. Because he got caught lying because through his game theory mind, he tried to stage the scene and make it look like a break-in.

We took him to trial. The jury deliberated for two hours in Montgomery County and brought back a 124 million dollar verdict, which at the time was the largest verdict in Pennsylvania for a contested wrongful death case. So the family was elated because they had some semblance of justice that they did not believe they received from the criminal justice system.

He basically said, come get me. My money’s protected. My money’s shielded by federal law. There’s one exception. And we successfully argued that exception. The one exception is pensions and 401Ks can be divided in divorce proceedings. There’s also an act called the Slayers Act. The Slayers Act stands for the proposition that you cannot in any way gain any benefit by murdering a person. So we argued that the benefit that he gained was fully avoiding that divorce. And he gained the benefit of not having his pension as 401k divided. And the judge said, you’re absolutely right and ruled that it will be divided. And we ended up being able to recover a substantial amount of money for that family.

And for the daughter who’s now 20 years old, the guy was fighting giving money to his own daughter after he killed her mother. So again, evil.

Larry Bendesky
So when we started out, I talked a little bit about Philadelphia trial lawyers. You’re going to be president of the trial lawyers. So tell us about the trial lawyer organization and what your role is going to be as president of the organization.

Drew Duffy
The Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association is a phenomenal organization where all of the best firms, all of the best trial lawyers, the plaintiffs’ attorneys in Philadelphia, they form this organization to protect access to the courthouse, access to justice. Upholding of constitutional rights and the right to a trial.  And the trial lawyers every day fight to keep the courthouse doors open to people who are victims of car accidents, medical malpractice, construction accidents, you name it, any type of negligence. Defective products, everything.

It is a monumental undertaking to become the president because you’re at the helm in making sure that for your year, you work as hard as you possibly can to make sure that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania continues to have fair laws, continues to have fair access to justice, continues to recognize everybody’s constitutional right to a jury trial, and allows our judicial system and our civil justice system to work the way it works so well.

And there are constant attacks. There are constant assaults from the other side that is trying to shut down injured victims’ rights to have their cases heard in front of a jury. And it becomes my job as the president to make sure that does not happen.

Larry Bendesky
Are there other states that don’t have the same equal playing field for people that are injured that Pennsylvania does?

Drew Duffy
Absolutely. There are many states that have instituted caps that say, OK, even though you will suffer for the next 50 years of your life in tremendous pain, even though you lost both legs and both arms, even though you are horrifically damaged and in a state where you can no longer talk to your children, feed yourself, wash yourself, and need care 24/7 from a visiting nurse, we’re capping your damages at $750,000, or we’re capping your damages at a half million dollars. There are states out there that have done that.

Thankfully, the majority of them don’t. The majority of them overwhelmingly recognize our U.S. and state constitutional right to a jury trial to allow jurors to decide what is a fair and reasonable amount for what that person deserves for pain and suffering, for what that person needs for their future medical care. So it is a constant onslaught from the powers of business and commerce to try to institute caps or to try to chip away at the rights of victims. And it’ll be my job to make sure that doesn’t happen.

But I have one of the greatest presidents of all time to walk down the hallway and ask Larry Bendesky, all right, what do you do in this situation? I’m very blessed here because we have had Steve Saltz, we have had Bob Mongeluzzi. Larry Bendesky, Steve Wigrizer, and now myself, be the president of Philadelphia Trial Lawyers. And I can walk into any of those doors and say, okay, here’s the situation we have. Here’s how I think we should best handle it. What do you think? And that’s going to be an invaluable tool for me. And you’re going to be seeing a lot more of me in the next year.

Larry Bendesky
It’s an awesome responsibility. Because it’s not only a responsibility for our clients, which we take very, very seriously, but it’s a responsibility for people that have lawsuits or may have lawsuits, legitimate lawsuits, which all they want is an even playing field, an opportunity to go into court and make a fair argument and get fair compensation. And yes, of course, we’re going to support you however we have to or you need. For you to do the best job you can do. It is very important and we are 100% behind you.

Drew Duffy
Well, it’s one of the greatest honors of my life and I can’t wait to start July 1.

Larry Bendesky
So what do you do when you’re not practicing law, when you’re no longer a pole vaulter? What kinds of stuff do you do?

Drew Duffy
Yeah, the men’s pole vault leagues for over 50 don’t really exist. You know, I think I would be dropped by my health insurance. But I have an absolutely wonderful family. My wife Jodi, we’ve been married for 23 years now, come this Sunday. Met Jodi in South Jersey. She’s a South Jersey lady and went up to her through mutual friends. Had a quick conversation with her that ended with, don’t date lawyers.

So, you know, I respect her stance, but her  execution was poor. We ended up, thankfully, hitting it off and have had a wonderful marriage with two wonderful kids. I have a son, Jack, age 20, who’s doing well at the University of Pittsburgh. I have a daughter, Caitlin, age 18, who’s headed to the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. So we informed my son that we’re not going to be visiting Pittsburgh much anymore. We’re going to go straight to Charleston.

Larry Bendesky
And do you think either one of them are going to become lawyers?

Drew Duffy
They have talked about it. It’s funny because they have been adverse to being a lawyer. Just because they see what I do every day, I’ve missed not, I’m not proud of this, but they get it. But I’ve, I’ve missed vacations with the family because I’ve had trials. They are fully aware of just the gravity of what we do day in and day out and the, and the awesome responsibility that we have in representing people and basically being the protectors of their greatest asset, which is their lawsuit. And so they have seen the rigors that come along with being a trial lawyer. And that won’t exactly tell somebody, hey, I definitely want to go to law school after seeing that. But they’re starting to come around and realizing that what we do is important, what we do is really special. And so Jack is thinking about it and Katie’s definitely thinking about it, so we’ll see. The goal, as a parent, right, is to not force them to do anything, let them make their own decision.

Larry Bendesky
I can tell you from sitting here and sitting in the same office with you, yes, you’ve been a tremendous lawyer and represented your clients to the highest standard, but you’re pretty great at it too. So you might have missed a couple of games, but you’re there for your kids every single step of the way. I know that.

Drew Duffy
To fully answer your question, we do a lot together. We love the Jersey Shore. So we’ll be down there this Memorial Day weekend and, you know, we just find things to do together. Just, you know, they made me take a pickleball out of my objections, but we have a lot of fun doing little things like that. Yeah, we have fun. We play wiffle ball on the beach, we go fishing, we take boats out. We just have a blast.

Larry Bendesky
Katie’s actually in the office this summer, right? Or this spring.

Drew Duffy
Katie is a senior at Harriton High School. Harriton has a phenomenal program where they have to do, they get out a month early as seniors. In return, they have to do a senior project. And then out of the blue, she said, can I do my senior project at Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky? I said, absolutely. What do you want to do? She says, I want to learn what Larry Bendesky does. She wants to learn what the big guy does. So she’s been in here. She’s been interviewing you. She’s been watching depositions. So who knows? Maybe that’ll give her the bug.

Larry Bendesky
And you’re a golfer too, right?

Drew Duffy
Love golf. Golf is very much like pole vaulting in my mind.

It’s obviously extremely technical. But the thing that I love most about golf is just the camaraderie. You’re out there with three guys, either three of your best friends or three people you don’t know. And inevitably it gets fun and the busting starts and the insults start flying. You remember golf for the shots and you remember golf for the people with whom you play. And those are lifetime memories.

Larry Bendesky
Before we go, talk about the firm a little bit. You mentioned camaraderie. Is there a sense of camaraderie here at Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky?

Drew Duffy
There is the greatest sense of camaraderie that I’ve ever experienced. I have been in the Jag Corps. I have been at a defense firm, another plaintiffs firm. And this firm by far has a culture of camaraderie.

Every firm that I’ve been to, in like the first two weeks, somebody pulls you aside and says, hey, stay away from this person, they’re a jerk. Hey, don’t work for this person. That never happens here. Bob Mongeluzzi, yourself, just all the people that are in charge of hiring here do an outstanding job of finding just normal people that want to work really hard, that want to work and do a tremendous job for their clients, but want to do so in a way that is with the utmost integrity, the utmost sincerity, and most importantly, in what we’re losing in society now, with the utmost civility. You can be a zealous advocate, you can be aggressive, and you can be aggressive to the core, but be a good person, be respectful of the judges, be respectful of the other side.

And that is entrenched in our personalities here. And that is owed to you and Mongo and setting the leadership and making sure that we all act that way. And in 20 years, you know, I’ve seen the benefits of that. You treat people well. I’ve had cases where I have duked it out and gone at it with defense counsel. And then in one of the greatest forms of flattery, can have happened in our line of work, three years later, I get a call from that very defense attorney whose child was injured and wants me to represent them. So that means you show them that you can do the job well, but you also show them respect so that they’re not hating your guts when you’re done.

Larry Bendesky
I agree with you and it’s very nice that you say that the culture comes from us, but I think it comes from a lot of people here, including and especially you.

Drew Duffy
Well, you guys set that standard and everybody has to follow that standard and we’ve seen it play out that in the past, if you have certain people that act differently, they’re not going to fit in here.

Larry Bendesky
Thank you, Drew, for your time today. I hope everybody got a sense of who Drew Duffy is. He’s one of the best lawyers in the city of Philadelphia and one of the best people I’ve ever met in my life. Thank you for being here as part of our podcast for Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky.

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