Robert J. Genis is a senior and founding partner in the law firm of SONIN & GENIS, ESQS.
Mr. Genis is a trial attorney specializing in seeking compensation for the families of people killed or seriously injured as a result of negligence, medical malpractice and products liability cases in the State and Federal Courts of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, and has litigated cases in a number of other states.
Mr. Genis has repeatedly achieved verdicts and settlements that have been listed in the Top Jury Verdicts and Top Settlements of the Year in the New York Law Journal, the National Law Journal, ALM Jury Verdict Reporter and New York Magazine, has obtained numerous multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements, is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, and has been inducted into the Super Lawyers and The National Trial Lawyers: Top 100 Trial Lawyers, Hall of Fame for Plaintiff Medical Malpractice Lawyers, and for Motor Vehicle Cases. Genis was awarded the only “Lawyer’s Lawyer” award from the Bronx County Bar Association.
He has successfully represented numerous victims of negligence, medical malpractice, lead poisoning, construction accidents, premises and vehicular accidents, elevators/escalators accidents, police brutality and false arrest, municipal wrongdoing, and other significant injuries.
Some of his note-worthy verdicts and settlements include: a $ 81.7 million dollar verdict in a landmark subway safety case; a $ 28.2 million dollar verdict in a police chase case; a $ 22 million verdict; a $ 17 million dollar judgment for the wrongful death of a man caused by inadequate security; a $ 15 million dollar verdict for a driver involved in a collision with a tractor trailer; $ 10.65 million verdict for a child molested by another child; $ 9.75 million settlement for the wrongful death of a retired 68 year old man with adult children; an $ 8 million verdict for a man that slipped and fell on pigeon poop on a staircase of an elevated subway station for an aggravation of a pre-existing spinal condition; a $ 7.5 million settlement in a trip and fall case claiming a TBI; a $ 7 million settlement in a medical malpractice case; a $ 6.75 million dollar settlement for injuries caused by smoke inhalation in a fire; a $ 6.5 million verdict in a wrongful death case on behalf of a chronic alcoholic on welfare who at the time of her slip & fall had a .316 BAC level (no comparative negligence), her daughter (the plaintiff) was a methadone addict on welfare; a $ 6.060 million dollar verdict for neck injury sustained by a professional mover in an elevator; a $ 4.5 million verdict in a Summary Jury Trial; a $ 3 million verdict for an aggravation of a soft tissue condition in a man involved in a car accident, where the man was unemployed and permanently disabled at the time of his accident; $ 3 million federal court verdict in Upstate NY for police negligence resulting in a shooting; a $ 3 million settlement for a supermarket employee that fell off a truck while unloading products and sustained RSD in rural Dutchess County; a $ 2.5 million settlement in a medical malpractice in conservative Staten Island; a verdict in excess of $ 2.4 for a chiropractor that sustained an injury to her neck in a hotel; a verdict in excess of $ 2 million for a pedestrian hit by a police car; a verdict for $ 2 million against the City of New York for a bicyclist injured due to a pothole; $ 1.75 million verdict for a bicyclist injured on ice; a verdict for $ 1.5 million in a medical malpractice case; a settlement for $ 1.5 million for a worker that sustained an electric shock; settlement of $ 1.5 million for a suicide in a jail; a verdict for $ 1.35 million to a woman that broke her wrist in a subway station; a settlement of $ 1,325,000 for the death of a man in a medical malpractice case; a settlement for $ 1.125 million in a wrongful death caused by EMS’s delay in responding to a call to “911”; a settlement of $ 1.025 million dollars for the wrongful death of a 12 year caused by dental malpractice. He received national attention on behalf of Teron Francis, who became brain damaged and on life support as a result of medical malpractice.
In addition to trying cases, Mr. Genis is a past Associate Editor of the National Trial Lawyer magazine and Past Editor in Chief of the Bronx Bar Journal, The Advocate, and has been published in those journals as well as the New York Law Journal, where he has been a frequent contributor, as well to the New York State Trial Lawyers Quarterly, New York State Trial Lawyers Bill of Particulars, the Queens Bar Journal and the Insurance, Negligence and Compensation Law Section Journal of the New York State Bar Association. Some of his articles have been cited in McKinney’s and other treatises.
Mr. Genis is an Emeritus Director of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, Past Vice President of the Jewish Lawyers Guild, a Director of the Bronx County, a past Director of the Bronx Women’s Bar Associations, and a past Secretary of the Tort Litigation Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. He has served on the Judicial Screening Committees of various bar associations and the Independent Democratic Screening Committee. He received the Distinguished Leadership Award from the Jewish Lawyers Guild, and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the State University of New York at Oneonta, and is a member of the Melvin Belli Society.
Mr. Genis has lectured Chaired and moderated numerous CLE programs and has lectured extensively for the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, has Chaired its annual Evidence Seminar and taught at its Decisions Seminar for almost two decades, and has also lectured for the New York State Judicial Institute; the American Association for Justice National Conventions and National Programs; National E-Litigation Summit; the New York State Bar Association Evidence program; the New Jersey Association for Justice [at their Statewide Annual Conventions; the New Jersey State Bar Association; the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the New York County Lawyers Association; the Bronx County Bar Association; the Bronx Women’s Bar Association; the Bronx Criminal Bar Association; the Bronx Black Bar Association; the Orange County Bar Association, and online for Lawline.com, the National Academy of Continuing Legal Education, and OnlineCLE123.com on numerous topics relating to wrongful death and personal injury and medical malpractice litigation.
Mr. Genis has handled numerous high profile cases that have attracted national and international media attention on TV, radio, newspapers and the internet.
Mr. Genis is a graduate of the Syracuse University College of Law.
