Page 36 - NYLS Magazine • 2015 • Vol. 34, No. 1

a resounding suCCess
New York Law School honored a group of distinguished alumni with the Groundbreaker Awards at its annual Gala on November 12 at Three Sixty in TriBeCa. The recipients of the awards were Steven R. Harber ’92, honored for his legal entrepreneurship and innovation; the Held/ Fleischner/Koncelik/Quigley/Whelan Family, honored as a true NYLS family legacy; and Meryl Fiedler Lieberman ’81, honored for her integrity and professionalism. The event exceeded its fundraising goal and also raised money earmarked for a special supplemental MBE bar program scholarship for every member of the Class of 2015.
Steven R. Harber ’92 is a pioneer in the legal services industry, having co-founded two of the industry’s leading companies: DiscoverReady LLC, a trailblazer in electronic discovery, and Palisades Advisors, an innovative advisor to litigation support companies. Mr. Harber is now Managing Director of Lean Law Ventures, which invests in companies that offer efficient and cost-saving legal services to corporate legal departments. Throughout his career, he has used his knowledge of law, technology, and project management to take complex tasks and turn them into predictable fixed-cost services.
New York Law School has been a huge part of the Held/ Fleischner/Koncelik/ Quigley/Whelan family’s history, almost since the School’s founding. Joseph Whelan started what might be described as a family dynasty of NYLS-trained lawyers when he graduated in 1906. He and each of his progeny who got NYLS degrees were stimulated by the School’s diversity, urban energy, and worldliness. He and his wife, Margaret Burke Whelan, also a lawyer, raised four children, one of whom, Doris, married Lawrence J. Koncelik. The Konceliks had 10 children, four of whom earned law degrees from NYLS. Ten family members are part of this legacy: Joseph, those four grandchildren, two of their spouses, and three of their children.
A founding and co-managing partner of Traub Lieberman Straus & Shrewsberry LLP, Meryl Lieberman helped grow the firm from four lawyers at its inception in 1996 to nearly 100 lawyers today, with offices in five states, and a liaison office in London. Her practice concentrates in environmental and toxic tort coverage litigation; complex insurance coverage disputes; and counseling involving products liability, premises liability, intellectual property and advertising injury, employment liability and discrimination, directors and officers liability, property damage and first-party coverage, general liability, and insurance policy drafting. She has litigated through appeal many major declaratory judgment and rescission actions nationwide. •
34 NEw York Law ScHooL maGazINE • 2015 • VOL. 34, NO. 1
to view the full photo gallery for this event, please visit www.nyls.edu/gala2014