Daniel O'Toole

Daniel P. O’Toole is a managing partner at the Manhattan-based personal injury law firm Block O’Toole & Murphy, LLP. A highly experienced trial lawyer known for his landmark verdicts and settlements, Mr. O’Toole has resolved nearly $850 million in results over the span of his 30-year career.

In the past six years alone, Mr. O’Toole has secured more than $340,000,000 in settlements and over $110,000,000 in verdicts. He focuses his legal practice on robustly and compassionately representing the rights of personal injury victims and has a strong track record in serious injury cases, which include construction accidents, motor vehicle accidents, premises liability cases, bad faith claims, and industrial accidents, among others. 

At age 55, Mr. O’Toole has been the lead trial lawyer or co-lead trial counsel on the following record-breaking results:

• $110,174,972 verdict in a Brooklyn case for a cyclist who was paralyzed after a railroad tie fell on him from subway tracks overhead
• $32,756,055 verdict in a Suffolk County case for a catastrophically-injured Vietnam veteran who was hit by a drug-impaired driver
• $22,500,000 settlement for a client who required 20 surgeries after a head-on collision in Westchester County, New York
• $20,181,000 verdict, the second largest personal injury verdict ever in the Court of Claims
• $15,000,000 settlement for brain-injured pedestrian struck by an automobile
• $15,000,000 settlement in tragic wrongful death case for the family of a HVAC technician killed on the job
• $14,000,000 verdict in a Nassau County case for a motorcyclist who required a below-the-knee leg amputation after he was struck by a truck
• $13,500,000 settlement in a Suffolk County case for a young woman who was hit by a company-owned car while she was walking home
• $13,000,000 wrongful death settlement for auto accident victim
• $12,000,000 settlement for injured pedestrian child with serious leg injuries (lifetime payment to claimant will be in excess of $70,000,000)
• $12,000,000 settlement for union worker injured at a Manhattan construction site
• $11,500,000 settlement in a Bronx case for laborer injured by a defective saw
• $11,000,000 settlement for laborer hurt on the job at a Brooklyn construction site

Mr. O’Toole graduated from Fordham University Law School in 1992, and is admitted to practice in New York and New Jersey.

Positions Held
Mr. O’Toole is active in the New York State Trial Lawyers Association (NYSTLA), where he serves as the Co-Chairman of the Labor Law Committee, a position he has held for over a decade.

Honors
Mr. O’Toole was chosen as one of the top 100 trial lawyers in the country since 2009 by the American Trial Lawyers Association and has been selected to the Best Lawyers® list in Personal Injury – Plaintiffs since 2014.

In April of 2020, he and his wife were honored by Fordham Law School at the school’s 2020 Scholarship Benefactors Reception. In June of 2019, Mr. O’Toole received the University of Scranton’s Frank O’Hara Distinguished Alumni Award. The award is the University’s highest honor and was given to Mr. O’Toole in recognition of his accomplishments as an attorney and for his philanthropy. In October of 2018, Mr. O’Toole received the James F. Gill Spirit of Hope Award from Fordham Law School’s Feerick Center for Social Justice. In 2016, he received the Founder’s Medal (the school’s highest honor) from his alma mater, Bergen Catholic High School, for his lifetime achievement and contributions to the school. In 2018, Mr. O’Toole was named Runner of the Year by One Mission, a pediatric cancer charity in Boston, Massachusetts, for his fundraising efforts running the 2018 Boston Marathon. Mr. O’Toole ran the 2020 Boston Marathon in support of HomeStart Boston, a charity dedicated to the eradication of homelessness. His efforts resulted in the third largest amount of money ever raised by an individual runner in the history of the Boston Marathon.

Charity Work
Mr. O’Toole is heavily involved in charitable work. He is a major donor to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Mr. O’Toole and his wife have endowed scholarships at the Fordham University School of Law and Georgetown University. They have also contributed substantially to the Dr. Michael DeMichele Scholarship at the University of Scranton, as well as to Boston College.

In the past ten years, along with his partners, Mr. O’Toole has been instrumental in raising over $6,000,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Mr. O’Toole is also a major donor for the Institute of Educational Achievement, a school for children with autism in New Jersey. Mr. O’Toole and his wife recently assisted in the funding of a Young Adult Lodge at the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. Mr. O’Toole has also contributed to scholarship funds at five Catholic grammar schools and high schools in New Jersey, funding high school educations for over 25 children.