It’s near-impossible to experience public transit with out encountering splashy adverts from attorneys who, as the pinnacle of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority places it, “appear to assume the MTA is definitely spelled ATM.”
Janno Lieber has repeatedly backed Gov. Kathy Hochul’s push for auto insurance coverage reforms which might be designed to chop prices and fraudulent claims, citing how the MTA is incessantly focused as a “deep pocket” in pricey private damage lawsuits.
The MTA paid $561 million in claims in 2025, up from $454 million one 12 months earlier. Funds paperwork don’t spell out how a lot private damage instances accounted for that greater than half-a-billion greenback sum.
However as transit officers and the governor discuss powerful in opposition to courtroom claims and “billboard attorneys,” private damage companies plaster splashy adverts on subway automobiles, in practice stations and at bus stops, turning their attorneys into acquainted faces whereas trolling for purchasers within the very system they sue.
There’s “Michael the Bull,” whose ubiquitous adverts present Brooklyn-born lawyer Michael Lamonsoff flexing in a superhero costume with a bull on his chest and one other on a Captain America-like protect. His web site boasts of $12 million in payouts for purchasers injured in a practice derailment and different seven- and eight-figure settlements.
“I’m somebody who’s assured sufficient to painting myself as an individual equal to a superhero,” Lamonsoff advised THE CITY. “I really feel just like the work I do is that of a superhero.”
Whereas Lamsonsoff — who says he has an “infinite” variety of instances in opposition to the MTA — casts himself as a Superman-type hero in his subway adverts, transit officers contend he and different private damage attorneys are higher off as villains.
“When there’s an auto accident, the attorneys have a tendency to go searching and say, ‘Was there an MTA bus anyplace close by?’” Lieber stated at a January committee assembly of the authority’s board. “As a result of if we may be made answerable for even 1% of that crash, there are swiftly very huge potential payouts as a result of we’re the deep pocket.”
Usually inside the identical subway automotive, adverts for Harris Keenan & Goldfarb hover over straphangers’ heads, with associate Seth Harris glowering subsequent to the phrases, “Good on the skin. Killer within the courtroom.”
Then there are the spots for “America’s Largest Private Harm Legislation Agency,” a few of which function a cartoonish picture of a person in a go well with and atop a pigeon flying above Manhattan.
“That’s me,” chirped John Morgan, whose adverts seem in Yankee Stadium, on Occasions Sq. billboards and throughout the subway system.
“I have a look at promoting type of the way in which I have a look at a meal — you want some greens and also you want some starch and also you want a protein and also you want a dessert,” Morgan advised THE CITY. “I’ve obtained out of doors, I’ve obtained radio, I’ve obtained tv, I’ve obtained social, it’s simply a part of the meal.”
After co-founding the namesake agency almost 4 many years in the past in Orlando, Fla., Morgan is unapologetic in regards to the method to placing its identify in entrance of tens of millions of New Yorkers throughout their each day commutes. He stated he doesn’t “give a f— about pissing off the MTA” by way of commercials or lawsuits, and trashes the subway as “filthy.”
“The place accidents occur is the place there may be lack of upkeep, a scarcity of cleansing, failure to examine, poor lighting, poor safety,” Morgan stated. “And once you get down within the bowels of the subway, you’re in an actual cesspool.”
The MTA pulled in an estimated $183 million in promoting income final 12 months, based on the workplace of State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. That’s up from $173 million in 2024, $136 million in 2019 and $115 million going again 15 years.
The numbers don’t break down how a lot of that cash comes from private damage attorneys, who buy adverts by way of the promoting large Outfront Media.
“Promoting on the MTA is a vital income generator and advert placements in our system are surging in reputation,” stated Mary John, the authority’s director of economic ventures. “We get a variety of advertisers from monetary establishments, universities, cultural programming, all the way in which all the way down to laser hair elimination and ambulance chasers.”
Morgan — whose picture additionally seems over the face of Woman Liberty in one other subway advert for his agency — stated he can also’t pinpoint how a lot cash he throws at transit promoting.
“I’ll simply say this, they’re not giving it away,” he stated. “The MTA just isn’t giving it away.”
Morgan laughed off the “billboard attorneys” label, whilst an American Tort Reform Affiliation report final 12 months discovered that the agency dropped greater than $218 million on adverts in 2024, outspending its closest competitor by a greater than 4-to-1 ratio.
“Guess who else is on billboards?” he stated. “The makers of unsafe merchandise and medicines — it’s okay for them to be on promoting their s— medicine and s— merchandise, however God forbid anyone is available in to say ‘I’m going to carry them accountable.’”
Lamonsoff, who stated he was nicknamed “The Bull” by purchasers for going after adversaries “like a bull would,” has a group of bull statues and collectible figurines from all around the world. He stated the lawsuits his agency recordsdata are an outgrowth of situations inside the transit system that may embrace staffing shortfalls and a scarcity of consideration to security protocols.
“On the finish of the day, lawsuits aren’t the issue, they’re the results of the issue,” he stated.
Lamonsoff brashly warned of “extra hassle forward” for the MTA if situations inside the transit system that result in lawsuits aren’t addressed.
“Let me be clear,” he stated. “To the MTA and to Lieber: If you happen to mess with ‘The Bull,’ you get the horns.”
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