a profile of the Hon. Sol Schreiber

INTERVIEW
On The
Case
Devastating tragedy drove at torney
Sol Schreiber to take on the fight
against a silent killer of women, and
the result is one of the nation’s most
successful charities. By Chris M. Junior
W
PHOTOGRAPH: JONATHAN GRASSI
ith a highly successful
career as a fixed partner
at the Milberg law firm
and a happy marriage,
life was pretty darn good
for onetime magistrate judge Sol Schreiber in
1989. Sol and Ann, his wife of then 25 years,
had a wonderful apartment in the Park Slope
section of Brooklyn, New York, a summer home
in Connecticut and spent a great deal of time
together, whether it be reading, traveling or at
the theater.
Their life together truly was the American
Milberg attorney and former
judge, Sol Schreiber, remains
a tireless campaigner for the
Ovarian Cancer Research
Fund he founded. RIGHT: Ann
Schreiber’s passing drove her
husband’s campaign to increase
research and public information
on the disease that took her
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dream, but it was a dream that was suddenly
and permanently shattered when Ann was
diagnosed in ’89 with ovarian cancer, the
deadly, insidious and, at that time, relatively
unspoken-of disease.
When Ann was diagnosed with stage three
ovarian cancer, Sol says he knew nothing about
the illness. But through talking constantly with
medical staff about his wife’s condition, he
learned a lot about it in a short period of time.
Over nights spent with Ann during her
treatment at Manhattan’s Mount Sinai Medical
Center, he also discovered that before their
relative was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, most
people knew little or nothing of the disease and
the process of its treatment.
“Many times I would be walking the
hallways and I would meet people who were
there for the first time,” Schreiber recalls
from his Manhattan office at Milberg, where
he’s currently of counsel. “They were very
disturbed and concerned and felt all was
lost. They had no idea of the treatment or
the activities that went on, even though the
doctors tried in their own way to help them, as
did the nurses.”
During those nights he spent at the hospital,
he passed along some of his knowledge to the
other folks who also had a loved one fighting the
same battle as his wife.
“It’s one thing when you speak from an
educated point of view,” he says, “and it’s another
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INTERVIEW
ABOVE: Sol Schreiber was
a magistrate judge in the
1970s. BELOW: The program
cover to this year’s Super
Saturday event
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thing to speak from the point of view of a person
who’s going through the process.”
It was during Ann’s treatment that Sol
and Dr. Carmel Cohen, who diagnosed and
subsequently treated Ann, realized the need for
an organization that not only informed people
but would also aid in research efforts.
In December 1994, three months after Ann’s
death at age 58, Schreiber (with help from Cohen
and others) founded the Ann Schreiber Ovarian
Cancer Research Fund, which was later renamed
the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. His firm
has financially supported the OCRF since its
inception. The Manhattan-based OCRF is the
largest independent organization in the United
States that funds only ovarian cancer research.
Schreiber’s road to founding the OCRF
has had many interesting stops, and many
of them are tied to his work as a lawyer, a
profession that interested him going back to
his youth in Brooklyn.
“I think it was because I used to talk a great
deal,” he says with a smile.
His parents ran a small grocery store in
an Italian section of Brooklyn, and Schreiber
used to help out in various capacities. Working
behind the counter, he says, taught him a
valuable lesson in how to treat customers and,
in effect, “how you have to adjust figures,” a
negotiating skill that served him well in his legal
career.
To illustrate his point, Schreiber tells a tale
from those days he refers to as “the cream cheese
story,” and it’s one he has presented hundreds of
times when working cases.
“I would put the cheese on the scale,” he
remembers, “and I’d say, ‘Mrs. Vitali, that’s 16
cents.’ And she’d say, ‘Sol, that’s too expensive.’
And I’d say, ‘OK, 14 cents.’ And she’d say, ‘OK.’ ”
In other words, be flexible.
In addition to the lessons he learned at
the family business, Schreiber’s education
includes a bachelor’s degree in 1952 from
the City University of New York and a law
degree in 1955 from Yale University. Prior
to joining Milberg in January 1982, he was
trial and resident counsel for the Brooklyn
office of Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., a
magistrate judge in the United States District
Court for the Southern district of New York
and president of the Federation of Jewish
Philanthropies of New York, which handled
claims and legal work for 14 major hospitals
in New York City. For the past 35 years, he has
developed continuing legal education projects
and books for American Law InstituteAmerican Bar Association (ALI-ABA).
Throughout his career, there has been an
educational element to Schreiber’s work and
endeavors, whether it be serving as an adjunct
professor at Fordham University’s School
of Law, developing and chairing a course on
American law in China and India or, for the
past 15 years, providing information about
ovarian cancer to patients and their families
through the OCRF.
Fundraising and grants also are key
components to the Ovarian Cancer Research
Fund. According to the OCRF’s Web site (www.
ocrf.org), the nonprofit organization since 1998
has awarded in excess of $33 million in grants
to 138 individuals at more than 40 leading
medical centers across the country.
Those grants have contributed significantly
AD
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AD
Sol Schreiber and second
wife Sharron Eisenthal
make the scene at Super
Saturday 12 in August
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Another Super Saturday for the OCRF
• The annual Super Saturday event benefiting the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund has helped raise
awareness of the hard-to-detect disease, not to mention generating big bucks for research efforts.
• The 2009 edition of the designer garage sale, held Aug. 1 in Water Mill, New York, included
talk-show personality/actress Kelly Ripa and Gossip Girl star Blake Lively among its co-hosts,
and featured clothes and accessories from Donna Karan as well as other notable designers.
• Super Saturday 12 raised about $3.4 million for the OCRF. Given the state
of the economy, OCRF founder and current board of directors co-chairman
Sol Schreiber says he is “remarkably happy” with the tally.
• Schreiber credits late Harper’s Bazaar editor Liz Tilberis, who died in April 1999
after battling ovarian cancer, with the idea for Super Saturday. During the summer
of 1997, Tilberis held a sale on the lawn of her East Hampton summer home to
raise money for the OCRF. She and Karan contacted designers and celebrities they
knew and encouraged them to donate clothes and accessories for that event.
• This year, in addition to sales of clothing, shoes and jewelry, Super Saturday
included raffles, spa treatments and a variety of family activities.
• On top of that, there were gift bags “almost too heavy to carry,” Schreiber says.
- Christina Lebec
PHOTOGRAPHS: Sharon Muready
toward the research into the mystery that is
ovarian cancer, which is the leading cause of
death from gynecologic cancers in the United
States, as well as the fifth leading cause of
cancer deaths among U.S. women, according
to the OCRF.
Sol Schreiber sits as the co-chairman of the
OCRF’s board of directors. When asked where
founding the OCRF ranks among his career
achievements, he says it’s a “close tie” for first
along with being a magistrate judge.
Since 2003, Schreiber has been married
to Sharron Eisenthal. She has an informal role
with the OCRF, Schreiber says with a twinkle
in his eye, as “my adviser.”
“She’s not averse to giving me her criticisms,”
he says good-naturedly.
On a mid-September afternoon in his
Manhattan office, which has a fantastic view
of the city and features framed photos of Ann
and Sharron, Schreiber sits behind his desk and
describes himself as “a very lucky man.”
“I’ve had two wonderful wives,” he says.
“Very few people can say they’ve had one.”
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