As the impact of the World Trade Center continues to magnify 25 years after the tragic attack, his practice never stopped taking on their cases or lobbying to get victims of 9\/11 government support.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI lose two clients a day now to 9\/11 illnesses,\u201d Barasch said. \u201cWe\u2019ve now lost over 9,500 people due to 9\/11 illnesses. Over 55,000 people have had their cancers certified by the World Trade Center Health Program\u2026 So 9\/11 wasn\u2019t just one day, it didn\u2019t end on 9\/11. Every single day people are getting sick and dying.\u201d<\/p>\n
How a 9\/11 victims\u2019 lawyer helped achieve justice and assistance<\/p>\n
In the wake of the attacks, Barasch went beyond litigation to spearhead an advocacy push for the greater Lower Manhattan area and the first responder community. That began with an effort to expand victim compensation eligibility criteria in late 2001 as the full health effects were not yet clear to the general public.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It culminated around ten years later when Barasch led lobbying efforts in Washington, DC to pass the James Zadroga 9\/11 Health and Compensation Act, the federal program that provides medical treatment and financial compensation to first responders, volunteers, and survivors affected by the aftermath of 9\/11.<\/p>\n
But almost 15 years after its passage, the effort to protect the Zadroga program and raise awareness about the victim community continues to be a major undertaking. <\/p>\n
After organizing a grassroots push to push Congress to reauthorize and permanently extend the programs in 2016 and 2019, Barasch said that his focus now is to restore the 38 doctors and nurses who were cut from the program in Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)-led cuts last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a primary focus so that people don\u2019t have to wait five months for an appointment so that they can get treatment earlier,\u201d he said, adding that length of time \u201ccan make the difference between diagnosing a cancer in stage one or two versus stage four, and that\u2019s the difference between life and death.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barasch has an air of amusement when he explains how his career evolved from a reluctant start as an insurance law student into the managing partner of one of the largest and most prominent 9\/11 victim compensation practices.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After initially attending law school to gain background knowledge for his father\u2019s insurance business, Barasch found himself \u201cbitten by the trial bug\u201d as he took a summer job with a personal injury lawyer who sent him directly into the courtroom. He kept sharpening his trial litigation chops for over the next decade as a personal injury lawyer, until a chance encounter with McGarry, a friend from law school, led him to start a new firm in 1996 that focused on New York City firefighters and police officers through the state law that allows them to sue negligent property owners directly if they get hurt in the line of duty.<\/p>\n
That law office was only three blocks away from the towers. On Sept. 11, 2001, Barasch saw the second plane hit, and evacuated his firm into the dust-accumulating streets below.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m one of those people you see covered in dust running uptown while the real heroes, my clients, were coming downtown towards the burning buildings that had just collapsed,\u201d Barasch said.<\/p>\n
A chance encounter leads to help for 9\/11 victims<\/p>\n
Following the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s assertions that the air was safe, workers returned to lower Manhattan. In the weeks and months after the attacks, Barasch was visiting firehouses and kept noticing firefighters with what became known as \u201cWorld Trade Center cough.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a personal injury lawyer, he knew they only had 90 days to file a notice of claim, if they wanted to pursue legal remedy for their injuries. With that in mind, Barasch began filing notices of claim for hundreds of firefighters suffering from these severe respiratory issues, just ahead of the municipal deadline, drawing public criticism at the time for adding to the city\u2019s recovery.<\/p>\n
Several weeks later, over Christmas vacation in 2001, Barasch found himself at a sports bar in Jamaica sitting next to the children of Ken Feinberg, the special master of the original 9\/11 Victim Compensation Fund (VCF). That encounter led to a meeting where Barasch presented medical and witness evidence demonstrating that firefighters were forced to miss the original 72-hour medical treatment rule for medical compensation while searching for survivors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHere I was given an opportunity to go to his office, and I treated it like a little mini trial,\u201d Barasch said. \u201cWe were prepared.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Feinberg subsequently waived the 72-hour requirement, leading Barasch to drop the lawsuits against the city and transfer claims to the VCF.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks to Mr. Feinberg\u2019s changing of the law, I was able to bring over 1,000 people to the first victim compensation fund,\u201d Barasch said. \u201cSome of them were downtown residents and downtown office workers, but the vast majority of them were municipal workers.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2003, the original 9\/11 victim compensation fund closed, but Barasch\u2019s advocacy was just beginning. When Barasch\u2019s client Police Detective James Zadroga died of pulmonary fibrosis, autopsy results showed \u201cglass, asbestos, lead, benzene, mercury\u201d in his lung tissue. For the next five years, Barasch partnered with Zadroga\u2019s family to organize a lobbying effort to reopen the victim fund and create a health program that would take care of not just first responders, but those living in the area surrounding the towers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe EPA told us the air was safe to breathe. It was not,\u201d Barasch said.\n<\/p>\n
Barasch & McGarry now operates with roughly 250 staff members dedicated to 9\/11 claims, probate\/surrogate court work, and free estate planning for affected families.<\/p>\n
An important part of his mission is now informing the public that you don\u2019t have to be a first responder to be eligible for the VCF, but it\u2019s not without its challenges to prove civilians were in the exposure zone 25 years later.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While 85% of eligible first responders participate due to saved city records, less than 15% of eligible civilians participate, he said. His legal team works to obtain school transcripts, workplace records, or affidavits from former neighbors or co-workers.<\/p>\n
The law caps attorney fees for these cases at 10%, which is significantly lower than standard personal injury contingency fees but he accepts the rate out of his personal connection as a 9\/11 survivor and advocate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s such a privilege to do what I do now, and I don\u2019t take it for granted, not one day,\u201d Barasch said.
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/first-responder-John-Feal-Jon-Stewart-former-F.D.N.Y.-Deputy-Chief-Richard-Alles-and-attorney-Michae.jpeg\" "\\"Remembering")
From left, 9\/11 first responder John Feal, Jon Stewart, former F.D.N.Y. Deputy Chief Richard Alles and attorney Michael Barasch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chance encounters shaped Michael Barasch\u2019s career in ways he would have never predicted.\u00a0 Without a pivotal meeting with…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1035744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[79462,414441,414442,414443,5229,414444,6525,9856,414445,414446,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,5257,15125,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,54308,414447,414448],"class_list":["post-1035743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-9-11","tag-9-11-health-issues","tag-9-11-survivors","tag-9-11-victim-compensation-fund","tag-america","tag-barasch-mcgarry","tag-fdny","tag-first-responders","tag-ken-feinberg","tag-michael-barasch","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nypd","tag-september-11-attacks","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-world-trade-center","tag-world-trade-center-health-program","tag-zadroga-act"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117192467001917940","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1035743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1035744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1035743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1035743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1035743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}