United in Justice: The Elite Team Transforming Lives at Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen

The attorneys of Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen (standing, L to R): Alex Arteaga-Gomez, Natasha Cortes, Julian Catala, William Mulligan, Andrew Yaffa, Stuart Grossman, Ryan Yaffa, Eric Halsey and Aimee Ferrer. Sitting (L to R): Gary Cohen and Neal Roth.

For more than three decades, Florida elite Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen has fought for victims of medical malpractice and general negligence, with more than $1B in recoveries, numerous unsafe policies altered and countless lives changed.

The secret to their success: a tight-knit, exceptional team.

With 11 attorneys between the firm’s Miami and Boca Raton offices, each lawyer is handpicked by leadership as ambassadors of the firm’s talent and ethos. Through working on carefully selected cases that speak to the firm’s mission and choosing attorneys who fit those endeavors, they have created a self-perpetuating foundation that echoes the firm’s founding strengths and values in its attorneys.

“The unmatched talent and unwavering dedication of our team are truly extraordinary,” emphasizes firm co-founder Stuart Grossman. “The gravity of the cases they tackle is immense, and each attorney brings a unique blend of skill and passion to champion our clients' causes in some of the most critical and high-stakes legal battles imaginable.”

While each lawyer excels individually, it’s their ability to work together that takes their efforts to the next level. The firm prides itself on a non-hierarchical, collaborative environment. The named partners work hand-in-glove with the firm’s next generation of talent on the equal footing befitting the prowess each lawyer displays in the courtroom.

In addition to the four named partners, that team includes Alex Arteaga-Gomez, Julian Catala, Aimee Ferrer, Eric Halsey, William Mulligan and Ryan Yaffa. Each one of them brings their own specialized expertise and flair to their work. Together, they create an all-around powerhouse firm.

THE PLAYERS

The first of those six to join the firm was Eric Halsey, who came to GRYC’s Boca Raton office in 2015 after nearly a decade litigating in Miami. A personal injury attorney from day one of his legal career, he was drawn in by the opportunity to work with, “real people who have real problems,” he says. Halsey focuses on medical malpractice and is known for rigorous preparation and a detail-oriented commitment to the understanding of the medicine and the facts of the case. “He has an ability to see through to what matters,” partner Julian Catala notes.

Catala, who joined the firm the next year, is celebrated for his dominance in trial – honed early on by starting out as an Assistant State Attorney at the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. “Julian is the best lawyer on his feet that I’ve ever seen in a courtroom,” says Halsey. He is known for his keen listening in cross-examination – preparation combined with hard-hitting improvisation. “Julian just listens to what they say, and he knows how to attack,” Halsey adds. “Defense lawyers are scared to death of lawyers like Julian who can think on their feet, so he garners respect very quickly.”

William Mulligan also joined in 2016, after working on the insurance defense side. He’d always known it was only a matter of time before he switched to plaintiffs’ law; in law school, he found fulfillment working in free legal services for individuals. On that note, he is known for his ability to connect with people, from clients to judges to witnesses to opposing counsel. He is also “unequivocally dedicated” to his cases, says associate Ryan Yaffa. “He’s not scared of any challenge. He’s committed to his craft and he’s always looking for that edge. He’s thinking about his cases at all times, and he's wicked creative.”

The firm prides itself on a non-hierarchical, collaborative environment.

Yaffa, meanwhile, was raised by the firm. Son of name partner Andrew Yaffa, he started at GRYC as a law student and continued with the firm following his graduation in 2020. “[As a child] I would attend depositions, attend mediations, see these clients who were suffering and saw the firm’s devotion to improving their situation – to making everlasting and meaningful changes on the policy side to prevent similar occurrences from ever happening again. It seemed like a worthy cause to devote myself to,” he says. In the years since, he has made his mark; the firm’s partnership describes him as a lawyer with a fierce work ethic who is unafraid to ask important questions.

Then there’s Alex Arteaga-Gomez and Aimee Ferrer, who worked together at one time before coming to GRYC. Arteaga-Gomez, who joined in 2018, spent four years as an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the Southern District of Florida where he gained trial and appellate experience after private practice at the Law Offices of Scott A. Srebnick and White & Case. Ferrer, who joined the firm last year, rose through the ranks to become Supervisory Assistant Federal Public Defender prior to becoming part of the GRYC team. In her time with the Federal Public Defender’s office, she tried numerous federal jury trials – multiple of them with Arteaga-Gomez.

Ferrer saw the opportunity to join GRYC as one that allowed her to utilize her razor-sharp litigation skills in new and challenging ways, while also getting to work with Arteaga-Gomez, whose work she respects: “He is one of the smartest attorneys I know, and incredibly hardworking,” she says. “That is what drew me to come here: the ability to work, not just with Alex, but with a team that Alex vouched for.”

Both attorneys see their current work at GRYC as a continuation of their missions to aid underserved communities. “The victims in our cases are largely people who have suffered challenges throughout all aspects of their life. Advocacy for them is often very similar to any other underserved group of people,” says Arteaga-Gomez.

For Ferrer, public service is a core tenant of her work both within the firm and outside of it: She is first vice-chair of the Miami-Dade Commission on Human Rights Board and is also the Board Chair of Engage Miami, a youth civic engagement organization.

THE GAME 

One of the firm’s most significant litigations in recent memory was a firmwide effort. In 2021, a condominium building in Surfside, Fla. collapsed, killing 98 people, injuring many others, and leaving all the residents of the condo, Champlain Towers South, without a home. GRYC attorneys were appointed as co-lead counsel and wrongful death damage claim liaison counsel.

Yaffa describes the experience as “eye-opening”: “I can’t even begin to articulate the number of lessons that I learned while assisting with the litigation surrounding that unfathomable tragedy and counseling the families who suffered unimaginable, sudden loss. It was a privilege to represent our clients and honor all who were lost, but very, very tough.” In the end, the plaintiffs’ committee recovered more than $1.1B for victims and their families from more than 30 settling defendants.

Halsey, meanwhile, recently concluded settlement of the seventh eight-figure resolution achieved in his nine years with the firm. The client went to the hospital with a brain hemorrhage and began to have trouble breathing. While in the MRI machine, he began to aspirate – no air could get to his brain. Ultimately, he suffered a major brain injury and is now mentally and physically incapacitated.

To making everlasting and meaningful changes on the policy side to prevent similar occurrences from ever happening again – it seemed like a worthy cause to devote myself to.

Halsey and Cohen litigated the case for over a year. The hardest part wasn’t the litigation, Halsey says; it was helping guide the clients through post-injury medical treatments and working through handling this new life that she and her severely incapacitated husband, only in their thirties, will now have to navigate. “You learn a lot about human struggle doing this,” says Halsey. “You prepare people for what you have seen others in their situation do next.”

“This is a case I will remember for the rest of my career,” he continues. “The clients were put in a terrible situation due to truly awful medical care. To be able to help make sure they will be financially secure for the rest of their lives is beyond fulfilling.”

That kind of connection with clients is a hallmark of GRYC attorneys’ approach; the team is known for their personal availability with an empathy for clients – and for the lengths they go in their advocacy.

Recently Mulligan worked with partner Stuart Grossman on a landmark case against the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in South Beach, Fla. The client, Andrew Gallo, was visiting South Beach from Long Island for his birthday. One day, he went for a swim at the hotel’s private beach. Unaware of shallow water depths, he took a dive and hit his head on a sandbar, shattering his spinal cord and leaving him without use of his arms or legs.

The attorneys alleged that the Ritz-Carlton knew about the sandbar but neglected to post signage. Through a social media deep dive, they discovered that other beach-adjacent Ritz Carlton hotels were posting diving warnings because of similar incidents. They also found out that Miami Beach was providing information to local hotels about the hazards of diving head-first.

“This all came from our own investigation, going down one rabbit hole and into the next. Doing that, there’s no substitute. Your best evidence is going to come from that extra-effort work,” says Mulligan.

Over the course of the case, Mulligan became extremely close with Gallo and his father as he often does with his clients. “The case broke my heart the entire time, but Andrew was so strong. John, his father, was so strong,” remembers Mulligan. Ultimately, they achieved a settlement for a significant sum on the final day of trial – rocking the Florida tourism industry and setting Gallo up with life-changing care.

Now, Gallo is married to his high school sweetheart and just had a child – and Mulligan was at the wedding. He speaks of Gallo with pride: “He’s going back to school. He has more use of his arms. It’s only possible with the amount of funds it takes to get best-of-the-line care that insurance won’t cover.”

EYE ON THE BALL: CURRENT MATTERS AND LOOKING AHEAD

The latest cases run the gamut. Several of the lawyers, including Ferrer, Arteaga-Gomez and Yaffa, are now working on a litigation involving defective eye drops. One client, a South Florida woman named Clara Oliva, lost her eye and became legally blind after using drops contaminated with antibiotic-resistant bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Meanwhile, Arteaga-Gomez also continues to spearhead cases surrounding the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. With more than $150M in settlements from the Department of Justice and the school board already, cases against the sheriff’s office and several individuals continue. 

It was a privilege to represent our clients and honor all who were lost, but very, very tough.

As their current cases indicate, over the years the team has built a wide base of expertise in medical malpractice, products liability, personal injury and beyond. One active case is representative of that intersection: Just this past March, Ferrer and other partners filed a case on behalf of Maria Rodriguez, a mother of three who underwent routine surgery in early 2023 to remove her fallopian tubes. The surgery, just two months after her third child was born, was supposed to be an outpatient procedure that would have her back at home the same night. 

Instead, during the surgery the trocar – an instrument used in laparoscopic surgery – broke apart, and the pieces were lost inside her body. When a second trocar of the same brand was employed to find the pieces of the first, that one also broke. Several pieces of trocar continue to float in Ms. Rodriguez’s body; they have never been found. After months in the hospital, Ms. Rodriguez almost lost her life due to infection and had to have three fingers amputated. The tragic case is a mix of medical malpractice and products liability practice; the firm is suing the trocar’s manufacturer, Applied Medical Resources Corporation, as well as Jackson Health System and others.

In addition to their broad base of advocacy in the courtroom, the lawyers’ work extends outside their caseload; for years, the attorneys have been involved in state legislative matters that restrict recoveries for future victims of injury and negligence.

Currently, that fight is centered around a tort reform bill, House Bill 837, which was signed into law last year. The bill makes it more difficult for personal injury claimants to collect damages, which the attorneys say is to the benefit of insurance companies. 

Arteaga-Gomez and others have appeared before the house subcommittee to fight the bill. He explains that much of what the attorneys are able to do for their clients is affected by these policies. “Just in the last two years, we have been required to spend a great deal of time and energy educating legislators about the impact that their decisions have on normal, everyday people and their ability to live in safe apartment buildings, get good quality medical care and get their insurance claims paid,” he says. 

A STEADFAST TEAM 

It takes an army to fight those battles in the courtroom and in the Florida legislature. Fortunately, the attorneys view every move as a team approach.

The lawyers work on their cases in tandem with senior leadership. “There is not a case in this office – whether you call it Neal [Roth]’s, Stuart [Grossman]’s, Gary [Cohen]’s or Andy [Yaffa]'s case – that every lawyer in the firm does not at some point touch,” explains Catala. “We work on cases the way that you would collaborate with friends or family members. That's how I would define the culture: one of collegiality.”

“We all make a commitment to be available to each other so we can keep everything moving forward for our clients,” says Arteaga-Gomez. “That’s really what I enjoy most about it, that it is a collaborative team experience.”

Catala agrees, adding that a team spirit and open attitude are vital in this line of work. “This job is about who you are more than it really is about what you do,” he says. “That’s the thing that clients tend to focus on when they’re putting their trust in someone to do something so important for them.” He adds that there isn’t a lawyer in the firm who doesn’t have a story about calming a client down at one o’clock the morning before mediation because the client doesn’t know what’s going to happen to their future. There’s more to this work than learning the facts of medicine and the law, he says; the thing he’s learned most during his time at the firm is that being a medical malpractice attorney is more of a lifestyle than a career.

Yaffa, as the youngest lawyer on the team, says he is mentored by every lawyer at the firm. “We have such a strong young core,” he explains, hitting on the reason the firm has laid such a successful foundation: The firm is not stagnantly hierarchical. Instead, it’s a living vehicle of advocacy in which every member of the firm serves as inspiration for each other.

“It’s an honor to learn and work with the entire core of attorneys and staff that we have at our firm,” says Yaffa. “The ability to carry on this legacy means more than words can express.”

With the firm’s foundation a cohesive unit of like-minded luminaries, the legacy is set to endure.