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Elefterakis, Elefterakis & Panek: The Firm Two Brooklyn Brothers Built Into a Billion-Dollar Injury and Civil Rights Practice

Brothers John and Nick Elefterakis founded their firm around 2010–2011 and, with partner Ray Panek, built it into a Lower Manhattan practice reporting over $1 billion in results — while running intake in Greek, Spanish, Turkish, Urdu, Polish, Mandarin, and Haitian Creole.

Origin and Background

Elefterakis, Elefterakis & Panek practices from 80 Pine Street, 38th Floor, in Lower Manhattan, confirmed through the firm’s own site and independent listings. Founder John Elefterakis, a native Brooklynite and Cardozo School of Law graduate, established the firm with his brother Nick, a Hofstra Law graduate who now serves as Managing Partner and General Counsel; the firm’s own materials date the founding to 2010 and 2011 across different pages, which Awesome Attorneys notes directly.

Practice Concentration

The firm combines plaintiff-side personal injury — construction accidents, motor vehicle accidents, premises liability, wrongful death — with civil rights litigation and employment law, an unusual pairing in this category that positions it for cases where injury and rights violations intersect, including claims against municipal defendants. See this New York Personal Injury directory for how this injury-plus-civil-rights hybrid compares to injury-only firms serving the five boroughs.

Notable Work / Track Record

The firm reports over $1 billion secured for clients, with published results including a $1,850,000 settlement for a client struck head-on at high speed by an NYPD vehicle, resolved after the firm won a judicial ruling holding the defendants 100 percent liable. Its attorneys have appeared in the National Law Journal’s Top 100 Verdicts. Past results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

Client Voice

The firm’s multilingual staffing — seven languages beyond English — is a concrete, verifiable access commitment rather than a slogan; Awesome Attorneys did not identify a pattern of negative public reviews warranting disclosure.

Beyond the Courtroom

Through EEP Sports and community initiatives, the firm sponsors youth athletics — including a partnership with the Italian American Baseball Foundation fostering international youth games — and has partnered with the Community-Police Relations Foundation supporting the family of a fallen NYPD detective, a notable civic posture for a firm that also litigates against the City.

Recognition for This New York Personal Injury Firm

Firm attorneys hold National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40 selections, Super Lawyers Rising Stars recognition, and National Law Journal Top 100 Verdicts appearances — peer-selected credentials 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

Claims against the City of New York or the NYPD — a recurring defendant across this firm’s injury and civil rights dockets — generally require a notice of claim within 90 days under General Municipal Law Section 50-e and suit within one year and 90 days under Section 50-i, while federal civil rights claims under Section 1983 follow their own three-year limitations period in New York. Most other injury claims run three years under CPLR 214(5) with pure comparative negligence under CPLR 1411. None of this is legal advice; a specific injury or civil rights claim should be evaluated by a licensed New York attorney based on the actual facts involved.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

EEP’s clearest differentiator is the pairing: a serious injury practice and a civil rights practice under one roof, with genuine seven-language capacity — a combination that matters concretely for a client injured by a municipal vehicle or mistreated in custody. The honest trade-offs are that the firm is younger than the century-old institutions in this category, and its own materials state the founding year inconsistently as 2010 or 2011. For an injury claim with a civil rights dimension, a case against the City, or a client better served in one of the firm’s seven languages, EEP earns its shortlist place on fit rather than longevity.

Methodology and Sourcing

This profile was researched from Elefterakis, Elefterakis & Panek’s own site and attorney biographies, its published settlement announcements, and independent directory listings.

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 Elefterakis, Elefterakis & Panek 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.