By CAROL MARBIN MILLER

Broward Daily Business Review—April 9, 1999

The founders of Krupnick Campbell Malone Roselli Buser Slama Hancock McNelis Liberman & McKee began practicing law together when their newest associates were in diapers. Yet the firm has never lost a partner.

The Fort Lauderdale firm has won verdicts or reached settlements of more than a million dollars in more than 400 cases. Still, the firm is housed in the same modest four-story office building it moved into in 1983.

And although the firm's partners all are financially secure enough to coast through the remainder of their careers, lawyers at Krupnick Campbell continue to gamble millions on contingency cases that could blow up in their faces. To celebrate the firm's first 25 years, Krupnick Campbell will be hosting a gala April 16 at the Signature Grand in Davie. The Temptations will provide entertainment.

"They have an excellent reputation, and they've done superior work," said Miami lawyer Mitchell Lipcon, who with his wife writes the newsletter Jury Trials and Tribulations, a survey of outstanding jury verdicts. "They take difficult cases, and they have gotten excellent results."

Consider this:

Every one of the firm's 10 partners has won a jury verdict greater than a million dollars, and several settlements have exceeded $10 million and $20 million. In one case, the firm garnered $214 million in settlements for 220 growers who accused the DuPont Co. of damaging their crops with the fungicide Benlate®. It was reported at the time, 1995, to be the largest single settlement in Florida history.

Some of the cases have made the firm's partners media darlings. Lawyers from Krupnick Campbell have appeared on "60 Minutes," "20/20" and "Primetime Live." Their cases have been mentioned in the Sunday magazines of the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Rick Roselli, one of the managing partners, said the firm actually allows publicity on only a tiny fraction of the hefty settlements.

"Most firms break up because of overwhelming ego," he said. "Here, we let each ego mature. In keeping clients' interests first and foremost, people's egos take a back seat. That's why we try not to publicize every single case where we have multi-million dollars. It's not always in the client's best interest."

Jon E. Krupnick founded the firm in 1974 and is considered a national leader in personal injury practice, with more than 135 verdicts or settlements that top $1 million. He was twice reported to have won the highest verdicts in the nation for a particular injury, and was reported by Forbes Magazine to be one of the 10 most successful lawyers in the United States.

"Having no money splits up firms," said Krupnick. "Sometimes, having a lot of money splits up firms. We have strived very hard, both when the money is tight - and it always is at some firms from time to time and when there's a lot, to recognize the effort everybody puts in."

The case that produced "the greatest good for the most people," Krupnick said, was the Benlate® settlement, in which the firm represented clients from as far away as Fiji and as close as Miami-Dade County. But Krupnick is most proud of his products liability work, which has forced potentially life-saving improvements in a number of consumer products, including wood chippers and lanterns.

Krupnick's first associate and now partner was Walter G. "Skip" Campbell. Campbell, who currently serves in the Florida Senate representing northwestern Broward, has been president of the Broward County Bar Association and the Broward County Trial Lawyers Association. Together, they have built a firm that is considered one of the most pleasant legal work places in the area.

"Their reputation is that the firm is really nice to work for," Lipcon said. "They treat people who work for them very well."