Chris O'Brien is a lifelong resident of the Buffalo area. A native of Kenmore, New York, Mr. O'Brien graduated from Canisius High School in Buffalo, the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Washington & Lee Law School in Lexington, Virginia.
Mr. O'Brien has handled a wide variety of personal injury cases, securing
multi-million verdicts and settlements in a wide variety of personal injury
cases. He has represented people hurt in car crashes, children who have
been sexually assaulted and the estates of people who were killed by drunk
drivers. Most recently, in June of 2007, Mr. O'Brien successfully obtained
a $2,000,000.00 settlement for a young man who was severely injured by
a drunk driver.
In April of 2007, Mr. O’Brien successfully prosecuted a car crash
case involving a woman who attempted to pass a car in a no-passing zone.
In that case, the jury returned a verdict of $4,240,000.00 for a man who
suffered three herniated discs and four broken ribs in a car crash. Through
the testimony of a wide variety of experts, Mr. O’Brien was able
to effectively educate the jury on the severity of his client’s injuries.
On cross-examination, he effectively exposed the bias of the insurance
company’s doctors as one doctor admitted to being paid over $10,000
to testify for the defendant while the other doctor admitted he makes over
a million dollars per year testifying and performing legal work for insurance
defense law firms.
Mr. O’Brien is one of two lawyers in New York State to have achieved
the status of Diplomate in the National College of Advocacy. He constantly
stays on the cutting edge of trial technique by teaching and critiquing
other lawyers at a variety of seminars and colleges around the country. He
has taught at the Ultimate Trial College for the American Association for
Justice (AAJ) at Harvard Law School and at the Basic Skills Trial College
for AAJ in both Birmingham, Alabama and in Reno, Nevada. Mr. O’Brien
has also presented for AAJ at its Mid-Winter Convention and has taught
at the Deposition College in Cleveland, Ohio and New Orleans, Louisiana. He
also has taught at the Case Workshop Program in Boston, Massachusetts,
where he worked with a number of jury consultants on teaching lawyers how
to effectively prepare a case for trial.
Mr. O'Brien maintains membership in the American Association for Justice,
the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, the New York State Trial Lawyers Association,
and the Western Region Affiliate of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association,
of which he is a past President. He also is a member of the Erie County
Bar Association.
Mr. O'Brien has been active in a number of community organizations including
David's Dinner for Famine Relief, Buffalo Na Fianna Gaelic Football Club,
Canisius High School Alumni Board of Directors, the Food Shuttle of Western
New York, Inc. and the Parish Council of St. Christopher's Roman Catholic
Church. He resides in Amherst, New York with his wife, Denise and four
children, Casey, Braden, Maeve and Eamon.