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Napoli Shkolnik: The Firm That Watched 9/11 From Across the Street, Then Represented 11,000 of Its First Responders

On September 11, 2001, the Napoli firm’s New York offices stood across the street from the World Trade Center, its employees eyewitnesses to the attack. Founding partner Paul Napoli was later appointed by the United States District Court as co-liaison counsel representing more than 11,000 first responders in the rescue-and-recovery litigation that followed.

Origin and Background

Napoli Shkolnik maintains its historic New York City base in the Empire State Building, confirmed through founding partner Paul Napoli’s National September 11 Memorial & Museum trustee biography, with the firm’s current corporate materials also listing a Long Island headquarters and offices across multiple states — a multi-office national structure Awesome Attorneys discloses directly. Founding partners Paul Napoli and Marie Napoli, with partner Hunter Shkolnik, built the practice into one of the country’s most prominent mass tort and injury operations over 30-plus years.

Practice Concentration

The firm’s practice spans personal injury, pharmaceutical and medical device litigation, environmental litigation, opioid litigation on behalf of governments, medical malpractice, aviation accidents, mesothelioma, and 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund claims. See this New York Personal Injury directory for how this national mass tort operation compares to single-office New York trial boutiques.

Notable Work / Track Record

The firm served as co-liaison and negotiating counsel in the Flint water crisis litigation, producing a landmark settlement with the State of Michigan reported at $600–625 million across sources. Other reported results include a $650 million settlement resolving roughly 4,000 Pradaxa claims, a $100 million NuvaRing settlement, a 2021 New York opioid jury verdict against Teva and related entities, and more than $3 billion secured for clients overall. Past results do not guarantee similar outcomes, and mass tort recoveries are distributed across large client populations.

Client Voice

As a heavily advertised national practice, the firm carries a large and mixed public review footprint typical of high-volume operations; individual experiences vary with case type and docket size, which Awesome Attorneys notes directly rather than smoothing over.

Beyond the Courtroom

Paul Napoli serves as a trustee of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, and the firm’s government-side opioid litigation — including the bellwether verdict against CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart in Ohio — has shaped national public-health litigation beyond individual client recoveries.

Recognition for This New York Personal Injury Firm

The firm’s court appointments — co-liaison counsel in the 9/11 responder litigation and the Flint water litigation — are judicial designations that function as independent professional recognition distinct from paid marketing placements. New York State does not operate a state-run attorney specialization certification program, so Awesome Attorneys does not apply “specialist” language to any New York profile on a state-certification basis.

New York Legal Backdrop

Toxic exposure claims in New York benefit from CPLR 214-c, which starts the three-year limitations clock at discovery of the injury rather than the date of exposure — the rule that makes latent-illness litigation like 9/11 respiratory disease claims possible decades after the fact. The federal James Zadroga Act separately reopened and extended the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund for responders and survivors. Most other New York injury claims run three years under CPLR 214(5) with pure comparative negligence under CPLR 1411. None of this is legal advice; a specific exposure or injury claim should be evaluated by a licensed New York attorney based on the actual facts involved.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Napoli Shkolnik’s clearest differentiator is court-appointed leadership in two of the defining mass litigations of the era — the 9/11 responder cases and Flint — backed by national infrastructure few plaintiff firms possess. The honest trade-offs are structural: the firm’s own materials now describe a Long Island headquarters with the New York City office as one location among many states, and an individual injury client joins a very large national docket rather than a boutique caseload. For a 9/11-related illness claim, a mass tort or environmental exposure case, or litigation requiring national scale, this firm’s appointments and results place it among the most consequential options in the category.

Methodology and Sourcing

This profile was researched from Paul Napoli’s National September 11 Memorial & Museum trustee biography, the firm’s own sites and published settlement records, and independent press coverage of the Flint, Pradaxa, and opioid litigations.

Publisher Disclosure and Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by Napoli Shkolnik prior to publication. Awesome Attorneys may in the future offer sponsored placement products to attorneys and firms, including this one, but sponsorship has no bearing on the editorial content, inclusion, or findings of this profile.