Paul D. Rheingold, a towering figure in American tort law, passed away on Feb. 28 at his home in Rye, surrounded by his wife and children. He was 92 years old.
Paul is celebrated for a legal career that redefined mass and toxic tort litigation, shaping modern litigation that championed the rights of individuals harmed by dangerous drugs and defective products. A distinguished trial attorney, legal educator, and philanthropist, Paul left an indelible mark on the American legal system and the communities he loved and called home.
Early Life and Education
Paul was born Nov. 1, 1933, in Boston, to Dr. Joseph C. Rheingold and Dr. Harriet Lange Rheingold and raised in Chicago and Rockford, Ill.
After graduating cum laude from Oberlin College in 1955, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, he went on to graduate cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1958 and began his career in 1958 serving as an Airman in the Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps in Washington.
After many successful years with Speiser, Shumate, Geoghan, Krause & Rheingold in New York City, he founded his own firm in 1971, Paul D. Rheingold, P.C., which later became Rheingold, Giuffra, Ruffo, Plotkin & Hellman LLP and remains so to this date. He acted as Of Counsel for this firm up until his passing.
A Legal Trailblazer
Often referred to as the father and pioneer of mass tort litigation, Paul is credited with naming two major legal practices: toxic torts and mass torts. His career was a series of historic firsts and leadership roles shaping the landscape of personal injury law in New York and across the United States.
Paul organized litigation for the cholesterol-lowering drug MER/29 in 1964. This litigation is frequently cited as the starting point for modern mass tort law, establishing the procedural groundwork for handling thousands of similar injury claims against a single manufacturer.
His success continued with DES (Diethylstilbestrol), representing women who suffered latent injuries, appearing years after their mothers’ exposure to DES. He was appellate counsel in the landmark case Hymowitz v. Eli Lilly and Co. (1989), which established the market share liability in New York state, allowing plaintiffs to recover damages even if they could not identify the specific manufacturer of the drug their mother had taken.
Other notable early mass tort litigations included the Dalkon Shield intrauterine device and the L-tryptophan dietary supplement.
In 2006, Paul authored the first legal treatise on litigating complex mass tort litigations, “Litigating Mass Tort Cases,” and remained the book’s annual supplement author until his passing. He also wrote or co-authored: “Lawyers’ Drug Handbook” (1967), “Negligence Case Techniques: Handling the Big Negligence Case” (1969), “Automobile Products Liability and Accident Reconstruction” (1969), “The Environmental Law Handbook” (1971), and “Products Liability” (1974).
Paul’s journey was marked by a relentless pursuit of knowledge and desire to mentor the next generation of lawyers. It was his groundwork in the field of mass tort and product liability that led him to be a faculty lecturer at Harvard, Stanford, Rutgers, and Fordham law schools.
National Leadership
Paul was a member of the Boston University Law-Medicine Institute (1959-1961), Associate Editor-in Chief for the National Association of Claimants’ Compensation Attorneys Law Journal (1961-1963) and served as the National Secretary for National Association of Claimants’ Compensation Attorneys/Association of Trial Lawyers of America (1971-1973). He was a member of the Task Force on Judicial and Regulatory Decision Making, Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology and Government (1989-1993) and was a long-time board member of the RAND Institute for Civil Justice until his passing.
Civic Legacy in Rye and Sunapee, N.H.
A resident of Rye since 1964, Paul was deeply devoted to local service. He served on the Rye City Planning Board for over a decade, acting as chairman from 1990-1992 and was a committee member that produced the Rye comprehensive plan in 1985, which remains in effect to this date.
As a historian, he spent years researching old maps and subdivision plans to author “Views of Rye 1917 & 2007,” “Rye (Postcard History Series) 2009” and “The Streets of Rye: How They Got Their Names 2022.” He gifted the right to the books to the Rye Historical Society, ensuring the city’s heritage remained accessible to all. His vast collection of 55,000 historic postcards and photographs now resides at UMass Amherst, and his legal art collection was given to the Pace Law Library.
For over 30 years, he served on the Board of the Edith Read Wildlife Sanctuary, a 179-acre shoreline preserve, and was secretary until his passing. Paul was recently inducted into the Westchester County Senior Citizens Hall of Fame for his civic efforts.
In his beloved summer home in Sunapee, N.H., he was a member of the Sunapee Historical Society. He authored several books on the region’s history, including “Lake Sunapee (Postcard History Series) 2012” and “Take Home a Souvenir: The Early Photographers of Lake Sunapee 2021,” a study of the professional photographers who documented lake life from 1877 through the 1920s.
Paul took a special interest in translating and editing the plays written in Yiddish by his playwright grandfather, Louis C. Reingold. These were informally performed by family members over the Fourth of July celebrations.
Family and Personal Life
Paul met his wife of 67 years, Joyce Bagley, while they were both in graduate school in Cambridge, Mass. They married in 1959 in Townsend, Mass. After living in Boston and Nahant, Mass., they settled in Rye in 1964. Besides spending time with his family, reading the “New York Times” cover to cover every day, collecting American Indian art, and traveling the world, Paul was an early adopter of marathoning and ran the NYC Marathon every year from 1993-1999.
Paul is survived by his beloved wife, Joyce; his three children, David B. Rheingold (Myrna); Julia L. McCartney (Terrence), Dr. Susan R. Rheingold (Jonathan Neely); and five cherished grandchildren: Jack McCartney, Daniel McCartney, Liliana Kelson, Finn Neely, and Mabel Rheingold. He was sadly predeceased by his son Ted Rheingold and his younger brother, Arnold Rheingold.
Donations in his memory may be made to Open Door Care Network online at opendoorcarenetwork.org/foundation/donations or mailed to Open Door Foundation at 560 White Plains Road, Suite 200, Tarrytown, NY 10591. A Celebration of Life will be held this spring in Rye.
