OUR STORY

Three Generations of Lawyers, Spanning 85 Years

Recognized by “Best Lawyers” and US News “Best Law Firms”

The story of The Edelsteins, Faegenburg & Brown began in 1937 when Paul Edelstein, a first-generation immigrant living in East Flatbush, graduated from New York Law School. Paul immediately began his practice on Court Street in Brooklyn — known as a “lawyers’ ghetto” — a place where everyday people knew they could find an attorney if they needed any kind of legal assistance. From these humble beginnings, Paul began a three-generation legacy of lawyers who have been dedicated to helping regular people facing real life problems for nearly 100 years.

Throughout the decades, reaching an Edelstein, or a lawyer associated with them, was almost as easy as finding a hot dog stand on a street corner in New York — and not much has changed today. While Paul was the first in his family to graduate college and law school, he was raised to believe that the law was a noble profession. He passed along his passion for the law and commitment to helping people to his son, Saul, who attended Erasmus High School in Brooklyn and went on to earn degrees from Brooklyn College and then Brooklyn Law School in 1961.

The Edelsteins founded a tradition of lawyering based on doing the right thing — and serving the legal needs of the community in which they maintain their roots. Saul partnered with his father at his Brooklyn office at 26 Court Street. His two sons, Adam, and Paul, who both graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 1990 and 1994 respectively still live in Brooklyn.

The family’s legal legacy became interwoven into the Brooklyn landscape. During Saul’s first year of law school, legendary Brooklyn Law School professor Joseph Crea, an advocate of the Socratic method, called upon an unprepared Saul one day in class. Recognizing his last name, Professor Crea asked Saul if he was related to Paul Edelstein, “the famous Court Street lawyer.” Professor Crea explained to the class how he had once sought out the elder Edelstein, a recognized expert in the real estate field, for his advice concerning a complex question.

“Your father, Paul,” Professor Crea told Saul, “He sat me down and not only pulled out legal briefs for me to review, but he explained them to me with patience and detail and encouraged me to take them with me and to return if I had any questions, which I certainly did. Your father is a great attorney, but truly he is a great man and a credit to the profession of law. I hope all of you can one day be lawyers of the stature of Paul Edelstein, but also have his humility. Now, young Mr. Edelstein, let me ask you this: [to which he posed the legal problem currently perplexing the class]. What would you do?”

“I would ask my father!” Saul replied.

Saul’s humor and skill in thinking on his feet was something impossible to teach or learn. It translated well to life in the courtroom where he became known as “The Dean of Divorce,” and a “Brooklyn Sherpa” — someone who other attorneys would be wise to partner with to navigate the insulated Brooklyn legal arena.

Ultimately, in 1969, Saul formed a firm with two other Brooklyn attorneys, Charles Herschel and Martin Schnier, who would become a respected member of the Brooklyn Supreme Court until he retired in 2011. In 1979, another Brooklyn resident and Brooklyn Law graduate, Phil Brown joined the firm. These lawyers were the mentors to a younger generation of Edelsteins and their “adopted” son, Glenn Faegenburg — a University of Pennsylvania and Brooklyn Law alumni and son of the esteemed radiologist, David Faegenburg, who practiced medicine for over 50 years. With more than 50 years of Faegenburg medical experience and nearly 100 years of Edelstein lawyering, it was a natural progression for the firm to excel in the personal injury and medical malpractice fields. Over the last twenty years, The Edelsteins, Faegenburg & Brown obtained extraordinary results for their clients, some record setting. They are regarded as one of the pre-eminent personal injury and matrimonial law firms in the country, having been bestowed with multiple awards for their outstanding work in both fields.

While the firm’s reputation has propelled its success, its foundation remains the same — it is a law firm composed of lawyers who place an emphasis on doing the right thing and helping those who cannot help themselves. It is the constant that has run through the practice since 1937.

Our story is one of fathers passing along their morals, their life’s experience, their passion, to their sons, and their sons passing it along to theirs. Our story is of three generations of lawyers dedicated to one sole purpose, being guided by a moral compass that always points in the same direction. Our story is meaningful because it has brought so much meaning to others. Our story spans years but is unworn by time. Our story continues to grow each day by way of the work we do to preserve the rights, the dignity, the welfare of the people we are fortunate enough to meet. Our story continues.