Business Matters, Personal Injury Law The Focus At Pike & Lustig

Michael Pike and Daniel Lustig of Pike & Lustig LLP are partners in a law firm focused on business litigation and personal injury litigation. They have a longtime friendship as well as business partnership, which they both say is more like a brotherly bond.

“We devote our firm to two areas of law, and we have our departments in our firm, staffed with attorneys, paralegals and legal assistants that assist with litigation involving personal injury and business [matters],” Pike said.

Those areas of law take in a wide array of issues.

“The unique dynamic of our firm is that we have the abilities and the staff and the attorneys to handle business disputes, shareholder disputes, breach of contract, real estate litigation, equine litigation, and also personal injury involving trucking accidents, auto accidents, motorcycle accidents, pedestrian accidents, plane crashes and the like,” Pike said.

While that is the firm’s focus, Pike and Lustig are not confined to only those areas of the law.

“We have represented several physician practices in Palm Beach County over the course of 10 years,” Pike said. “We do everything from partnership agreements to shareholder agreements to operating agreements for any type of business, including commercial businesses, physician practices, public-related companies and closely held corporations.”

Pike is an experienced trial attorney, which he views as a key strength.

“Our departments are staffed with a lot of horsepower, which enables us to handle cases that are medium-size all the way to very large, intensive federal court cases and state court cases,” Pike explained.

The firm is able to manage cases at the state and federal levels.

“We do have a very strong client base in the western communities, but given the fact that we practice in both state and federal courts, and the fact that we actually try cases in front of judges and juries, we have a pretty strong base throughout the State of Florida,” Pike said.

Pike was born and raised in Miami. He received his law degree from the University of Florida. He had a personal motivation for devoting a portion of the practice to personal injury.

“When I was six or seven years old, I witnessed my father get shot in South Miami. He was shot in the leg. He lived. Subsequent to the shooting, there was a large case brought in Miami state court,” Pike recalled. “I had to testify as a young boy, and I sat through the trial and watched the entire proceeding, and it was there, I believe, that started the desire to want to have a career as an attorney.”

Lustig is originally from Costa Rica, moving to Florida when he was 15 years old. He received his law degree from the University of New Hampshire, and he also holds several other advanced degrees.

Pike and Lustig originally met while working at another practice. It was there that they became friends and decided to become law partners. Lustig said Pike started out as a great mentor for him when they began working together.

“I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished,” Lustig said. “I’m very proud for having learned under him because the great thing for clients is that when they get a work product coming from our firm, it’s always going to look similar because we think alike, and we write in a very similar way.”

It was under the mentorship of Pike that Lustig became a well-practiced lawyer.

“I trained under Mike for several years. I would say I am still training under Mike because he has taught me everything I know as a lawyer,” Lustig said. “He’s taught me to be a lawyer who thinks outside the box and not just a lawyer who just will follow what the plain reading of the law is. In that regard, we established a very, very good friendship.”

Lustig is very happy with the practice and what he does for a living. “It’s always good to love what you do because that’s the reason you always want to be practicing law,” he said. “When you love what you’re doing, you want to do it more.”

Lustig also had a personal motivation to want to focus on personal injury law.

“My brother-in-law died in a tragic car accident, and I thought it was necessary for me to be involved in an area of the law that was quite personal to people when they are going through a difficult time, because my family had its share of tragedy in that regard,” Lustig said.

Both Pike and Lustig are Wellington residents. Pike lives in the community with his wife, Pamela, and daughters Aliyah and Ari. Lustig also lives here, with his wife, Dara, and sons Jacob and Benjamin.

“At every opportunity that we have on a local Wellington basis, we support other businesses in Wellington by and through our sponsorship of events and our memberships in the Wellington Chamber of Commerce,” Pike said.

To contact Pike and Lustig LLP, call (561) 291-8298 or visit www.turnpikelaw.com.