For Port Washington resident Annamarie Bondi-Stoddard, college didn’t run in the family but after doing well in school at an early age she decided to pursue a career in law, she said.
“I don’t come from a background of lawyers and doctors, and I was one of the first in my generation, besides my cousin, to go to college,” said Bondi-Stoddard, managing partner of the law firm of Pegalis & Erickson LLC. “My parents and grandparents were Italian immigrants.”Bondi-Stoddard obtained a law degree from Boston University and an undergraduate degree from Seton Hall University, where she graduated summa cum laude, with departmental honors.
After graduating from law school, Bondi-Stoddard said she had the opportunity to work at a firm that specialized in medical malpractice.
“You learned as you go along and I thought it was very interesting,” she said.
Bondi-Stoddard has more than 30 years of experience representing plaintiffs in medical negligence cases involving women’s health issues, birth injuries, and surgical, neurosurgical, cardiac, cancer and other medical specialties.
Her successful cases include securing a record medical malpractice settlement against the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp. for an infant who sustained brain damage at birth as a result of oxygen deprivation and skull fracture.
Bondi-Stoddard said she believes the most important goals in medical malpractice litigation are helping secure the financial future of significantly injured individuals so they may have a better quality of life, relieving some of the financial burden on overwhelmed family members and helping make medical care safer for others.
Bondi-Stoddard was re-elected as treasurer of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association for 2016-17 on June 14.
The association said its initiatives include preserving and enhancing New York’s civil justice system, such as advocating for the passing of Lavern’s Law to protect patient’s rights. The proposed law would start the statute of limitations from the time a patient discovers malpractice rather than the two and a half years from the time medical malpractice occurred.
“It is a privilege to formally link with this group of dedicated attorneys who work to ensure wrongfully injured New Yorkers have access to the civil justice system, and who promote legislation to protect the rights of New Yorkers injured as a result of negligent acts,” Bondi-Stoddard said.
Bondi-Stoddard is one of a handful of female managing partners on Long Island.
In 2016, she was named an Outstanding Woman in Law by Hofstra University School of Law’s Center for Children, Families and the Law. In April 2013, she was awarded the Corporate Leadership Recognition Award from United Cerebral Palsy of Nassau.
The Long Island Business News (LIBN) named her one of Long Island’s Top 50 Business Women in both 2012 and in 2005. Bondi-Stoddard was awarded LIBN Who’s Who in Women in Professional Services in both 2011 and 2010, and celebrated with other industry leaders when she received the LIBN “50 around 50” Award.
She has been listed in Best Lawyers since 2007, and continues to be voted by her peers for inclusion in the New York SuperLawyers, every year since 2007.
She was past president of the Long Island Women’s Agenda, has been active on the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women committee, and participated in the American Cancer Society’s former ‘‘Choose You’’ movement.
She has written extensively on medical malpractice in publications such as The New York Law Journal and lectures on patient safety and medical malpractice for lay audiences and law industry professionals. Her published articles include: “Smart Patient, Healthy Patient” in Long Island Women’s Agenda: Issues in Focus and “Medical Malpractice Damages in Infant Death Cases” in The New York Law Journal.
She is a member of New York State Trial Lawyers Association, Nassau-Suffolk Trial Lawyers Association, Nassau County Bar Association, the American Association for Justice, New York State Bar Association, Nassau County Women’s Bar Association and New York County Bar Association.
Bondi-Stoddard is admitted to practice law in New York and New Jersey, in the United States District Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, in the United States District Court of New Jersey, in the United States Supreme Court and the United States Court of Federal Claims.
Bondi-Stoddard moved to Port Washington in 1991 and has three children who graduated from Paul D. Schreiber High School.
“We love Port. It’s a great community,” she said.
