In one of New York’s most talked-about personal injury verdicts of 2025, trial lawyer Nick Liakas and litigation consultant Jessica Brylo take us behind their $22.75M victory against the NYC MTA.
This article was originally published in the Trial Lawyer’s Journal. Explore more stories here.
What started as a subway “slip and fall” unraveled into a John Grisham-style legal thriller — disputed intent, questionable witnesses, layers of deception, and the anatomy of a closing argument that delivered.
0:30 – Introduction
1:30 – Client Intake: The Call
6:20 – Framing the Case: Jessica and Trial Dynamics
8:10 – Discovery: Uncovering the Truth
18:42 – Picking a Jury in New York
25:00 – Disproving the MTA’s Witnesses and Suicide Theory
32:50 – The Witness Statement (and Why Is There Only One?)
41:17 – The Closing Argument: Meet Joe Black (The Man in the Black Suit)
49:29 – The Verdict: Reflections on Collaboration
Get to the stories and go “Behind the Verdict” and learn:
- Structuring a case when the facts don’t line up
- Handling a surprise teenage witness with credibility
- Tactics to dismantle a suicide defense convincingly
- Framing without alienating the jury
- And much more behind-the-scenes strategy
Speakers:
- Nick Liakas, Senior Partner, Liakas Law, NYC Trial Lawyer
- Jessica Brylo, Founder, Trial Dynamics, Litigation Consultant
- Moderator: Chad Sands, VP Marketing @ CloudLex, Editor @ Trial Lawyer’s Journal
