Zwiebel and Fairbanks, LLP is a law firm that represents individuals and families who have
sustained a serious or catastrophic injury.

When I first opened a law office in Kingston, New York in 1974 it was my hope to make a
difference in people’s lives. In the late 1970's it had become clear that reckless corporations, bad
drivers, negligent doctors and overzealous prosecutors were a danger to the average person. So I
began to represent people injured by those groups. Lawsuits for injuries caused by defective
products, automobile negligence, malicious prosecutions and construction accidents were brought.


In the early 1980s it was becoming apparent that the doctors who had made American health care
the envy of the world were being squeezed by “corporate medicine”, “managed health care”
(HMO’s) and large medical groups using “business models”. With the death of the house call came
the 15 minute doctors visit. While “economies of size” and other corporate doctrines increased
medical revenues the depersonalization of medicine rushed and pushed even the most qualified
physicians. In some hospitals the cost of staff overrode the quality of care. Haste makes waste, but
in the medicine people are injured from carelessness. By the mid-80's people injured by medical
malpractice to the list of those we would represent.


As our population has aged, the need for professional care outside of hospitals is becoming more and
more apparent. Residential communities called “Nursing Homes” have sprung up. The residents
of these types of facilities make up a special “class” of people. They are often unable to voice their
problems or to even protect themselves. This problem has been recognized by both Federal and
State governments, both of which have enacted laws, rules and regulations for the protection of
nursing home residents. The Federal Nursing Home Reform Act grants to every nursing home
resident the RIGHT to attain or maintain the highest practicable mental and physical well being. In
essence, the operators of nursing homes are required to use every possible means to make the elderly
and disabled live to their fullest. Unfortunately, the same business trends that have effected
manufacturers and medicine has come to dominate Nursing Homes resulting in residents with
fractured bones, horrific bed sores, dehydration and malnutrition.


Several years ago only a few Nursing Home neglect matters trickled their way through the legal
system. That is no longer the case. As people have become aware of the RIGHTs of their loved
ones, we have made ourselves available to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. We have
been in the forefront of those handling such cases and now dedicate a large segment of our time to
investigating and prosecuting cases of Nursing Home rights violations.


When in the early 1990's we saw a trend in which government bureaucracies were invading people’s
lives. We began to represent families torn apart by too-quick-to-act social service departments and
schools, and government liability became a new area of our practice. We brought cases as far away
as Texas, where we were able to reunite a family shattered for years by the combined efforts of a
negligent psychologist, reckless school officials and a rigid Attorney General’s office. Similar cases
in New York and Pennsylvania all ended well. Families were reunited, criminal charges were
dismissed and money damages were paid to the families.


Jonathan Fairbanks and I joined together in 1998. Jonathan had worked to protect all the people of
New York as an organized crime prosecutor and as a Deputy New York City Fire Commissioner.
Then in the private practice of law, he obtained large settlements and verdicts on behalf of families
and individuals who had suffered serious and catastrophic injuries. He had worked for a large firm
but longed for a situation where clients could feel the comfort and security that exists when one
attorney stays focused on their case. The firm became Zwiebel and Fairbanks, LLP.


Jonathan Fairbanks and I started our legal careers practicing criminal law. We still do. Our cases
have ranged from driving while intoxicated to homicides. Together we have over half a century of
experience doing criminal defense in state and federal courts. Of course, every accused and case is
different but we understand both the common problems and unique demands of all defendants.


At Zwiebel and Fairbanks, we strive to make things right. We use a team approach. Although each
case has one consistent lead lawyer, litigation strategy and courtroom tactics are a shared
responsibility. When a girl was burned by a stove, I traveled to Texas and brought back evidence of
a multi-decade corporate cover-up which allowed a defective product, a stove, to be distributed and
used (Germond v. White Westinghouse, New York Law Journal). Jonathan did the final preparations
and settled the case on the eve of trial using that evidence. When a mother of three was hospitalized
with a fever and rash caused by a fatal and extremely painful drug reaction, Jonathan and I found
doctors from Harvard Medical School to testify about the hospitals malpractice (See Halley, New
York Jury Verdict Reporter). We even had the chance to use photographic evidence obtained for one
Brooklyn factory injury to prove negligence in another injury case at the very same factory (Fox v
Domino Sugar, US District Court for the S. D of N. Y, Hamlin v. Domino Sugar, State Supreme
Court, Kings County). It was teamwork that brought victory in each of these cases.


If you, a friend or a loved one have been injured by the wrongful acts of another, a government
agency, a doctor, a hospital, a nursing home or by corporate negligence contact us. Why? Because
we are “THE RIGHT LAWYERS” to help injured people and their families, and very proud of it.

Alan S. Zwiebel

ALAN S. ZWIEBEL


Alan graduated from New York University in 1969 and New York Law School, in 1973.
Before starting to practice in the Hudson Valley he was a staff attorney with the New York City
Legal Aide Society’s criminal division. He is admitted to practice and has tried both civil and
criminal cases in the State and Federal courts of New York. He is also admitted to practice
before the United States Supreme Court. In the past he has been granted permission to practice
law, on a limited basis, in the courts of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Texas and Georgia.
Personal injury and civil rights cases in which he has been involved have been featured on
20/20 News (ABC), 60 Minutes (CBS),Frontline(PBS), WCBS New York and CNN.
He was the first attorney in the United States to obtain a verdict on behalf of a family whose
civil rights were violated by a county government’s use of a fraudulent investigative technique
called Facilitated Communication (Prieto v. County of Orange).
His investigation into a house explosion in New York, and his representation of its victim, led
to a United States Consumer Product Safety Commission investigation of hot water heater
valves and the ultimate recall of the product (Gilberti v. Robert Shaw Controls).
The results of his representation of victims of medical malpractice and nursing home neglect
have been published in the New York Law Journal’s Jury Verdict Report.
In the area of criminal law he has successfully represented individuals charged with the many
different offenses. He has obtained acquittals for individuals charged with such varied crimes
as murder, sexual assault and drug sales.
Alan is a member of the Association of Trial Layers of America and the New York State Bar
Association, of which he was a member of its House of Delegates from 1981-1983.

JONATHAN FAIRBANKS

Jonathan Fairbanks graduated Columbia Law School in 1977. Upon graduation he joined the
Kings County District Attorney’s Office (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and tried close to 150 cases to
verdict, ultimately heading the unit responsible for organized crime murders andinvestigations.

He successfully prosecuted and convicted James Burke, infamously portrayed in the movie
“Goodfellas ” for murder. After being a prosecutor he became a Deputy Fire Commissioner
for the New York City Fire Department where he was responsible for the fire marshal’s office,
ran the legal department and counseled the fire commissioner on daily operations.
He then came to the Hudson Valley where his focus became personal injury. As a personal
injury attorney he has tried and settled many cases, some in excess of a million dollars. Shortly
after winning the largest contested personal injury award in Saratoga County’s history, he
decided to join his old friend Alan Zwiebel.

While at Zwiebel and Fairbanks, Jonathan has focused on cases involving serious and
catastrophic injuries. He has continued to achieve settlements and verdicts for some of his
clients in excess of a million dollars. He won a multi- million dollar settlement for a young
girl injured in a stove tipping case against its manufacturer (Germond v White Westinghouse).
His work in that case and with his partner Alan Zwiebel in the cases of Bennett v. Albany
Medical Center and Halley v. Albany Medical Center, both complex medical malpractice
matters, resulted in settlements worth over a million dollars for the victims.

Mr. Fairbanks continues to practice criminal law and he recently successfully defended an
individual, at trial, who was wrongly accused of kidnaping and assaulting the man who
burglarized his home.