How Two Class of 2000 Grads Made the Leap to Their Own Firm
In the forefront, (L to R) Anne Marie Bowler '00 and Sari Gabay '00, who founded Gabay & Bowler, and were recently joined by Donald Gabay ’61 (inset right), who is Sari's father, and is serving as of counsel.
When Sari Gabay ’00 and Anne Marie Bowler ’00 first decided to leave Big Law and start their own law firm, Gabay & Bowler, it was 2006 and they were looking to practice law on their own terms. Observers questioned the wisdom of their decision.
They were both litigation associates at Proskauer, and walking away from a highly paid position and going out on one’s own just six years out of law school simply was not done. “What they thought of both of us, was ‘You're crazy,’” Anne Marie recalled. “We did not have any clients. But we did it—and we grew our business.”
Plus, they seemed not only sane but also sage when, several years later, the U.S. financial crisis prompted law firms to shed staff and the two were featured in a 2011 New York Times article as a success story amid an apparent legal trend among younger lawyers exiting the partner track to go solo. Sari and Anne Marie ended up mentoring other Brooklyn Law School alumni and acquaintances, including partners, who wanted to start their own firms and needed advice on topics like securing malpractice insurance and renting office space.
Today, nearly two decades later, there is a family twist to their thriving venture. A highly experienced attorney from Big Law has joined Gabay & Bowler as of counsel: Donald Gabay ’61, a longtime adviser who specializes in insurance law and who also happens to be Sari’s father. Like his daughter, he has stayed in close touch with his own Brooklyn Law School classmates, personally and professionally.
Before spending four decades working for the Wall Street firm Stroock’s insurance practice, Donald was First Deputy Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services, a founder of the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers in New York, and chief counsel to the state Assembly’s Committee on Insurance. After Stroock dissolved last fall, so did the pension rules that restricted him from working for another firm. A certain upstart law firm caught his eye.
“Sari and Anne Marie have been doing this for 18 years, and they’ve done a beautiful job,” said Donald, whose delight for his new colleagues is mutual.
“Donald has always been a source of encouragement and guidance to us, and he has a wealth of experience of just how to speak to clients, how to deal with sensitive issues with clients, how to advise them, and always provide options,” Anne Marie said. “That’s why we started our firm: to be the best communicators and advisers when dealing with clients.”
Her father’s experience with a diversity of clientele, Sari said, will help further grow their business, which is a New York City-certified Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprise. “He’s great at bringing in business and clients, and business development and advising on insurance matters and all kinds of other case strategies.”.
Friendships Forged in Learning Together
Decades-long relationships are part of the secret sauce that have helped Gabay & Bowler and its three alumni thrive as attorneys. Sari and Anne Marie were not in the same section at Brooklyn Law School and their paths did not cross until they became new associates at Proskauer. They were both recruited to the Manhattan-based firm as 3Ls, after meeting with Bruce Fader ’74, the head of the litigation department at the time, Anne Marie recalled. Many of their new colleagues had been summer associates at Proskauer, but the Brooklyn Law alumnae were complete newbies.
“That’s what Sari and I bonded over,” Anne Marie said. “We both had the same hard-working work ethic, and it helped us join a firm where we would work alongside graduates of Harvard and Columbia.”
The two have stayed active with Brooklyn Law School over the years: Anne Marie is a member of the Law School’s Women’s Leadership Circle, while Sari has revisited the school to serve as a Moot Court judge.
Donald is also a proud alum. The first law school graduate in his family, he studied accounting at City College but decided to become a lawyer instead, a career shift that his mother enthusiastically endorsed. At Brooklyn Law School, he made some lifelong friends through the alphabetical-order seating system used in class, including Allen Berman (deceased) Stanley Cohen, Herb Chavez, David Epstein (deceased), and Stanley Friedman. Over the years, Donald and his Law School friends attended each of their children’s bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs, and later their weddings. More than 60 years after graduating, they continue to routinely get together in Boca Raton, Florida, where they now have homes, and where Donald and Herb Chavez live in the same community.
“We see each other as often as we can, and our friendship developed by sitting in Brooklyn Law School classrooms in the front row,” Donald said. Donald’s Law School friendships even extended beyond the front row; he plays golf on Fridays with Herb Posner, another classmate. Working with the Law School and his own network, he helped recruit other Brooklyn Law alumni to Stroock, including Marty Minkowitz ’63, and is a strong proponent of going to law school, as his daughter can attest.
“Sari used to write poetry, and she’s a very good writer,” Donald said, but added that he saw something more, too. “Growing up as the third child in the family, she always had an answer for everything. I encourage people to go to law school even if they do not practice because it helps whatever they go on to do in their professional life.”
Building a Lean, Agile Business
Still a lover of words, Sari recalls a Law and Literature class with Ruth Bader Ginsburg Professor of Law Susan Herman, that piqued her interest in copyrighted work and led to her receiving the Law & Literature Prize at Brooklyn Law School and interning at The Author’s Guild, advocating for writers on issues of free expression and copyright protection. She continued with intellectual property work at Proskauer, and now at her own firm. She and Anne Marie learned together how to diversify beyond litigation, which comprises about half of their overall business, into other areas, such as drafting and revising contracts, which represents another substantial portion of their work.
“When someone first came to us and asked us to do a contract, we’d never drafted a contract before, but from litigation, we knew the problems with them, the loopholes, and the things that people litigated over,” Sari said. “We’re always learning something new.”
In addition to mastering insurance regulatory law from Donald’s (the insurance guru’s) influence, their latest move is taking on trust and estate litigation. Crucially, too, they know what they do not know. If they need someone with expertise in an area to help them, they call former classmates or colleagues from Proskauer or elsewhere to assist in delivering the best possible experience and advice for clients. “We’ve always believed your best referral is a happy client,” Sari said.
Consulting other attorneys, and being conservative on expanding their team’s head count, is part of the lean approach they have taken to their business.
“We found that that’s been a good way to be able to survive crises like COVID and not have to worry about substantial overhead,” Anne Marie said.
“I know what is going on in Sari's cases and she in mine. And the same with Don,” Anne Marie said. They can readily step into one another’s cases, if needed.
“It’s not like the partner’s billing the client and there are associates on the call,” Sari said. “We do not overly staff matters and no one complains about our bills and our clients send us more business or refer friends and colleagues. We like it the way it is.”
Those interested in starting their own law practice should be aware that taking time off is not as easy as it is at a big firm, Sari and Anne Marie said.
“There’s always something to do,” Sari said. “When the firm is yours and you are growing, you are not going to ignore it if the client has an issue on the day you are planning to be on vacation. We never shut off entirely, but at the same time, we can control cases we take, we control our work schedule.”
Indeed, Anne Marie was able to work remotely in Italy for two weeks while traveling, without missing a beat, and Sari said she can attend her children’s events without getting supervisor approval.
At the end of the day, the freedom they sought through Gabay & Bowler, has been achieved in an environment that seems like (or literally is) family, all with roots in Brooklyn Law School.