Bennett J. Wasserman
Bennett J. Wasserman is the Editor of the Legal Malpractice Law Review. He has focused his practice on the law governing lawyers, with emphasis on legal malpractice, professional responsibility, lawyer advertising, billing disputes and the fiduciary duties of practicing lawyers. He has been involved in more than 1000 such cases, defending and prosecuting substantial claims in these areas. A significant part of Ben's work is devoted to serving as a strategic consultant and expert witness on liability and causatlon issues in legal malpractice litigation. He is frequently called upon by litigators, law firms and professional liability insurers to analyze complex cases of compliance or departures from standards of legal practice and rules of professional conduct as they relate to lawyer malpractice, risk avoidance, ethics, attorney advertising and law firm billing practices. Several important reported court decisions in state and federal courts have cited his work as the basis for their decisions.
Since 1990, Ben has served as Special Professor of Law at Hofstra University School of Law, where he has taught a full semester advanced course in Lawyer Malpractice. He has also been a guest lecturer at other law schools at home and abroad and has served on the faculty of continuing legal education programs in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. He is the lead author of the New Jersey Law Journal’s Annual Review of the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decisions in the areas of legal ethics and malpractice.
Ben is a graduate of Hunter College (B.A. 1968, M.A. 1971). He received his J.D. cum laude in 1974 from Hofstra University School of Law, where he served as Articles Editor of the Hofstra Law Review. He is admitted to practice in the States of New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania and in the United States District Courts, Circuit Courts of Appeal and the United States Supreme Court. In 1985, the Supreme Court of New Jersey certified Ben as a Civil Trial Attorney. He serves on the Malpractice Insurance and Legal Education Committees of the New Jersey State Bar Association. He has been elected to SuperLawyers® in the field of Professional Liability and to Best Lawyers in America® in the fields of Legal Ethics & Professional Responsibility Law and Legal Malpractice Law. He holds the AV® rating from Martindale-Hubbell and is listed in its Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. In 2008, the New Jersey Law Journal voted him "Lawyer of the Year" for his work in persuading the NJ Supreme Court that its own attorney advertising rules violated constitutionally protected commercial free speech. He is of counsel to Stryker, Tams & Dill, LLP with offices in Newark, New Jersey and New York City.
