Pamela A. Nichols

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Pam has been a Partner at O’Connell & Aronowitz since 1997 where she practices in our Personal Injury Litigation Department. She was the firm’s managing partner for fifteen years. Her accomplishments tackling the legal issues that arise during litigation have been critical to the firm’s overall success.

Pam consistently obtains excellent results representing plaintiffs in all areas of personal injury lawsuits including wrongful death cases, medical malpractice, automobile collisions, trucking crashes, dangerous products, abused children and defective medical devices and pharmaceuticals. Since New York State’s passage of the Child Victims Act in 2019, she represented countless numbers of survivors of child sexual abuse in actions against their abusers and against the establishments that failed to prevent the abuse.

Due to her extensive litigation experience and strategic capabilities, Pam was asked to join the team of criminal defense attorneys in a political prosecution known as the “Buffalo Billion” trials in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.  Pam provided counsel throughout two trials spanning several months, and an appeal which ultimately resulted in a victory at the United States Supreme Court. 

Her results speak for themselves. Pam recently settled an automobile collision involving a pedestrian for $4 million. She settled a pedestrian-construction case for $2.65 million.  Pam was the driving force in winning an $11 million verdict in a medical malpractice case involving sexually abused children. Pam obtained a $1.8 million settlement in a medical malpractice case involving a physically abused and neglected child. She co-counseled a wrongful death trucking collision which settled for $6.5 million dollars and a ski injury trial which ultimately settled for $1.5 million dollars.  Pam recently settled with a school district for $2.6 million dollars for the abuse of students. 

Pam has obtained millions of dollars on behalf of children injured at birth and on behalf of adults and children who have suffered injury and death as a result of malpractice. She has represented many families in wrongful death actions to recover for the loss of a family member due to the negligent acts of others. Pam understands that the focus must be on family after a parent or child sustains an injury and she fiercely protects families’ legal and financial rights so they can focus on their emotional and physical needs. She is a tireless advocate for New York State’s Grieving Families Act which would allow families to seek compensation for grief or anguish, loss of love, protection, comfort, and companionship and loss of nurture, guidance, counsel, advice, training and education resulting from death of a loved one.

Pam also takes pride in her commitment to the L.G.B.T.Q.+ community in the Capital Region through her legal representation of clients in the community and through the firm’s participation in local events that support and celebrate diversity.

When she is not practicing law, Pam is an active volunteer supporting many different causes that encourage and ensure health and safety. In 2012, she joined forces with The Casey Feldman Foundation and EndDD.org for a national distracted driving initiative aimed at keeping high school students safe on the road. The Casey Feldman Foundation is a not-for-profit whose namesake was a 21-year-old Fordham University student who was killed by a distracted driver. Her parents, Joel and Dianne, both attorneys, started the foundation in their daughter’s memory with the hopes of sparing other families from such profound loss. Tragedy inspired a national movement and began Pam’s journey as an advocate of EndDD in upstate New York. Today, under her leadership, O’Connell and Aronowitz volunteer attorneys have brought EndDD’s message to more than 14,000 students in upstate New York. Pam has also presented to the NYS Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee and NYS Partnership for Teen Driving Safety.

Every year, Pam leads our firm in volunteer efforts to help others in need. These efforts include providing food and clothing to homeless veterans, providing school supplies to children in need, painting the physical plant of the local Boys and Girls Club, providing supplies for domestic violence safe houses and homeless shelters, and providing supplies to homeless L.G.B.T.Q.+ high school students.  Her outreach has also included organizing supply donations around the country to aid victims of natural disasters.

Pam serves as the Capital Region Affiliate President of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association and is a member of NYSTLA’s Executive Committee. She is an active member of the Leader’s Forum with the American Association for Justice and The Injury Board, a national community of personal injury attorneys committed to consumer safety. Once again named to the Best Lawyers in America list in addition to the Upstate New York Super Lawyer’s list since 2012, Pam also earned the highest level of recognition from her peers with Martindale-Hubbell’s AV Preeminent Rating. 

Pam represents clients throughout upstate New York as well as in New York City where she maintains a residence. She enjoys reading, travelling and spending time with her family.

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