Biglaw, Disasters / Emergencies, Partner Issues

Biglaw Partner Rescues Stranger From Being Hit By Subway Train

Don't you wish you had partners like this working at your firm?

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Biglaw partners are often accused of being unkind and uncaring, but today, we’ve got a story about a Biglaw partner that’s sure to warm your hearts and perhaps make you change your mind about the people who run your firms.

Eric Dinallo is a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton who works in the firm’s Financial Institutions Group. The man is no stranger to swooping in to save the day; during the 2008 financial crisis, he had a hand in AIG’s rescue while serving as the superintendent of New York State’s Insurance Department. Last week, he was involved in a different kind of rescue. A man had fallen onto the subway tracks, and Dinallo was able to pull him to safety mere seconds before a train came hurtling into the station.

The Am Law Daily obtained a copy of an email Dinallo sent to his colleagues after word began to spread of his heroic efforts. Today, we share it with you.

I went into the downtown local station at 23rd and [Sixth] and was waiting toward the very back of the platform at around 4:30 p.m. when I hear sort of a plaintive voice that sounded like it was coming from the tracks below. There was a pretty big crowd to my right and one woman to my left. She and I exchanged looks as to whether we actually heard something. Then I heard people yelling from the crowd that “he’s down there and he’s going to die” or words to that effect. At about that time, I saw a red hat bobbing around about 15 feet to my right nearer the crowd just below the platform edge (the depth/distance to the tracks is way deeper than you might think—I’d say close to 6 feet high to the platform). I hurried over and saw a man that looked disoriented and trying to get up to the platform but couldn’t. He had probably fallen down, as frankly he seemed inebriated or high from the way he was acting and talking. I [lay] face-down perpendicular to the platform edge, avoiding bending down so he couldn’t potentially pull me in with him (at our weekend house community this is how you’re taught to pull someone out of a frozen lake) and yelled for him to grab my arms. About this time people really started to scream as the M Train was coming and we were only about 150 feet from the uptown opening of the tunnel. I heard the subway horn blaring and the brakes screeching and just grabbed his elbows and pulled as hard as I could. The man came up sort of on top and next to me on the platform. The subway then immediately came screeching by and stopped about 40 feet past us. He and I got up, and he seemed pretty out of it. The most appreciative person was the subway engineer who clearly thought he was going to hit and kill the man. (Later, MTA told me that it’s a known blind curve that’s close to the opening.) The man, who did seem a bit out of it and down on his luck, wandered further down the tracks. I spoke with the engineer, and he called in a report and pulled out of the station eventually. The man hopped on the next F Train, saying he was fine, as I waited for MTA. Frankly, during the whole experience I think adrenaline was pumping and I did not realize how dangerous it all probably seemed until bystanders came up to ask me if I were OK, etc. Then, I just felt like I was in a fog and sort of nauseated. Eventually, people went back to their commute while I waited about 15 minutes for the MTA station manager to show up. During that time, the whole thing on reflection became completely surreal, as I thought about my family and what could have gone wrong, etc.

Again, thank you for the kind calls and emails. I did what any of us would have done—I was just in the right place at the right time, with a touch of technical [knowledge] that made me feel confident I was not acting recklessly—at least that was my feeling in the moment!

Don’t you wish you had partners like Eric Dinallo at your firm? If you need a hero at Debevoise, he’s your man. Thanks for being an excellent human being, Mr. Dinallo.

Debevoise Partner, Ex-NY Regulator, Saves Man From Subway Tracks [Am Law Daily]

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