It’s near-impossible to trip public transit with out encountering splashy advertisements from attorneys who, as the pinnacle of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority places it, “seem to think the MTA is actually spelled ATM.”
Janno Lieber has repeatedly backed Gov. Kathy Hochul’s push for auto insurance coverage reforms which are designed to chop prices and fraudulent claims, citing how the MTA is often focused as a “deep pocket” in expensive private harm lawsuits.
The MTA paid $561 million in claims in 2025, up from $454 million one yr earlier. Price range paperwork don’t spell out how a lot private harm instances accounted for that greater than half-a-billion greenback sum.
However as transit officers and the governor speak robust in opposition to courtroom claims and “billboard lawyers,” private harm corporations plaster splashy advertisements on subway automobiles, in prepare stations and at bus stops, turning their attorneys into acquainted faces whereas trolling for shoppers within the very system they sue.
There’s “Michael the Bull,” whose ubiquitous advertisements 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 shoppers injured in a prepare derailment and different seven- and eight-figure settlements.
Private harm legal professional Michael “The Bull” Lamonsoff advertises on a subway automobile, April 23, 2026. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
“I’m someone who is confident enough to portray myself as a person equivalent to a superhero,” Lamonsoff advised THE CITY. “I feel 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 advertisements, transit officers contend he and different private harm attorneys are higher off as villains.
“When there’s an auto accident, the lawyers tend to look around and say, ‘Was there an MTA bus anywhere nearby?’” Lieber stated at a January committee assembly of the authority’s board. “Because if we can be made responsible for even 1% of that crash, there are all of a sudden very big potential payouts because we are the deep pocket.”
Typically inside the identical subway automobile, advertisements for Harris Keenan & Goldfarb hover over straphangers’ heads, with associate Seth Harris glowering subsequent to the phrases, “Nice on the outside. Killer in the courtroom.”
Then there are the spots for “America’s Largest Personal Injury Law Firm,” a few of which characteristic 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 advertisements seem in Yankee Stadium, on Occasions Sq. billboards and throughout the subway system.
“I look at advertising kind of the way I look at a meal — you need some greens and you need some starch and you need a protein and you need a dessert,” Morgan advised THE CITY. “I’ve got outdoor, I’ve got radio, I’ve got television, I’ve got social, it’s just part of the meal.”
After co-founding the namesake agency practically 4 a long time in the past in Orlando, Fla., Morgan is unapologetic concerning the method to placing its title in entrance of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers throughout their every day commutes. He stated he doesn’t “give a f— about pissing off the MTA” via ads or lawsuits, and trashes the subway as “filthy.”
“Where accidents happen is where there is lack of maintenance, a lack of cleaning, failure to inspect, poor lighting, poor security,” Morgan stated. “And when you get down in the bowels of the subway, you’re in a real cesspool.”
The MTA pulled in an estimated $183 million in promoting income final yr, in response to 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.
Private harm attorneys promote on a C prepare, April 23, 2026. Credit score: Alex Krales/THE CITY
The numbers don’t break down how a lot of that cash comes from private harm attorneys, who buy advertisements via the promoting big Outfront Media.
“Advertising at the MTA is an important revenue generator and ad placements in our system are surging in popularity,” stated Mary John, the authority’s director of business ventures. “We get a range of advertisers from financial institutions, universities, cultural programming, all the way down to laser hair removal 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 just say this, they’re not giving it away,” he stated. “The MTA is not giving it away.”
Morgan laughed off the “billboard lawyers” label, at the same time as an American Tort Reform Affiliation report final yr discovered that the agency dropped greater than $218 million on advertisements 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 products and drugs — it’s ok for them to be on selling their s— drugs and s— products, but God forbid somebody comes in to say ‘I’m going to hold them accountable.’”
Lamonsoff, who stated he was nicknamed “The Bull” by shoppers for going after adversaries “like a bull would,” has a set of bull statues and collectible figurines from all around the world. He stated the lawsuits his agency recordsdata are an outgrowth of circumstances throughout the transit system that may embrace staffing shortfalls and an absence of consideration to security protocols.
“At the end of the day, lawsuits are not the problem, they are the result of the problem,” he stated.
Lamonsoff brashly warned of “more trouble ahead” for the MTA if circumstances throughout the transit system that result in lawsuits usually are not addressed.
“Let me be clear,” he stated. “To the MTA and to Lieber: If you mess with ‘The Bull,’ you get the horns.”
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