With a humility and reserve rare among experienced trial lawyers, Joseph Bavaro has emerged in recent years as one of Long Island’s - and indeed, one of New York’s - most effective courtroom practitioners. He’s a partner at the Woodbury-based firm of Salenger Sack Kimmel & Bavaro, whose personal-injury cases span many of the counties in NY state. The firm has helped clients obtain more than $1 billion in awards over the last four decades. Along with partner Jeffrey Kimmel, Bavaro has assumed leadership of the firm in recent years. In fact, Bavaro has built his own solid reputation, much of it based on a record of courtroom successes in classic tort litigation, medical malpractice, labor law, sexual-abuse claims and employment discrimination claims.

Clients will find Bavaro grounded, free of bravado, and emotionally supportive and empathetic, whatever the circumstance. Says he: “I’ve lived 1,000 lives by putting myself in the shoes of my clients. That’s the way I want it, and always have.” That abiding loyalty is not far removed from Bavaro’s proud Italian-American roots - he grew up in the Richmond Town section of Staten Island, where he and his siblings learned to strive early (his older brother today is an orthopedic surgeon; his sister is a school vice principal); their father, Nick Bavaro, who had emigrated from Italy and later worked for Ronzoni Foods, “always sacrificed for our family, and set a great example.”

At Monsignor Farrell High School Bavaro wrestled and played various sports - “Sports really give kids a sense of confidence and self-worth, and I was no exception. It taught me to assume a role on a team, and take pride in the role you played. That’s stayed with me.” His parents, too, encouraged musical training and education, and though the young Bavaro was hardly at the top of his coat-and-tie high school class, his parents, positive and steadfast, urged him to stick to it; that persistence has never left him, peers say. At college in Albany, “I experienced a wave of intellectual diversity - different points of view. It was truly mind blowing for me.” As an undergraduate he took an internship with a senate leader at the statehouse, which further challenged all his youthful assumptions. It was there, too, that the law seemed a logical next step. (He even considered becoming an actor, but the telegenic Bavaro said his father talked him out of it ‘ “The world doesn’t need another stocky Italian actor,” he advised.) The young Bavaro went on to law school, with only a broad idea of his ambitions - in fact, it was his mother, who worked for Staten Island Judge Louis Sangiorgio, who urged him to talk to her boss; it gave the young Bavaro a valuable early mentor and set him on a path to litigation.

He first worked with William Mastro, then an assistant to Judge Sangiorgio, and from then on, Bavaro says, “I knew I wanted to make a career in the courtroom.” He joined the Staten Island district attorney’s office working for William Murphy, another early influence. After nearly four years prosecuting a range of crimes, and with solid courtroom experience, Bavaro sought his next step. “As a prosecutor you recognized you were punishing the offender, but not helping the victim. Plus, I was starting a family - I had to push forward and chart a profession.” Thus Bavaro was referred to Marvin Salenger, whose standing was of course well known, and who needed a young litigator.

Since that fall of 1997 - more than 25 years ago now - Bavaro has handled a range of plaintiffs’ claims for clients. One of his first: A claim against an Orange County hospital stemming from a sexual assault of a patient. “Curiously, it was not a high-profile case, and didn’t involve huge sums - but the outcome changed my client’s life. And it reinforced my faith in the legal system, and that I was working for the right people, the people who deserved my focus and energy.” He became a partner at the five-lawyer firm in 2007, and has since served in several leadership capacities in the state’s trial bar as well. He is often the face of the firm in media interviews and appearances. He is on the faculty of Hofstra University Law School, teaching a course in Foundational Lawyering Skills.

Away from the office Bavaro enjoys a round of golf; he is also dedicated to help raise funds for autism research. He, his wife and three children live in Huntington.