Perry Weitz

Perry Weitz is an American attorney and partner at the Manhattan law firm Weitz & Luxenberg, which he co-founded in 1986. He is also a founding partner of Oak Row Equities, a Miami Florida-based real estate development company.

Background Weitz started the law firm with an asbestos lawsuit. He sued on behalf of 36 workers who became sick after working at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. His suit got his clients $75 million. Of that $75 million, approximately one-third went to Weitz & Luxenberg. The firm now makes 60 percent of its revenue from litigation related to asbestos cases.

In a 2002 article by The New York Times, "A Surge in Asbestos Suits, Many by Healthy Plaintiffs," a law professor at Yeshiva University, Lester Brickman, said, "Sick people with legitimate claims represent a tiny fraction of the claims being brought." In response, Weitz was quoted in the article as saying, "Juries throughout the United States have said that these people deserve compensation . . . You really have to have faith in the jury system."

Politics

Weitz is a director of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association. The association is "a heavy lobbying presence in Albany," according to The New York Times.

In 2010, Kathleen Rice, the Nassau County district attorney, ran for New York state attorney general. In 2009, Rice hired Weitz's son, Justin Weitz, as an assistant district attorney. In the 2010 election cycle, Weitz and his partner, along with three other attorneys at Weitz & Luxenberg, contributed a total of $236,698 to Rice's campaign.