Edward Galison, defense attorney who battled in court in colorful neckties, dies at 83

Attorney Edward Galison loved when people chuckled at his zany necktie collection, but it was no laughing matter when the Mineola criminal defense lawyer got out a legal pad full of handwritten questions and began a cross-examination.

“He loved to get a prosecution witness on the stand and grill them. He was a fighter,” said Carle Place lawyer Bob Zuflacht, his longtime colleague, neighbor and travel buddy.

On Nov. 9, Galison died at age 83 in a rehab facility near his Woodbury home after complications from an infection related to diabetes.

If he’d had his choice, Galison would have died at his desk after decades of practicing criminal, traffic and matrimonial law in local courts, according to his legal and personal assistant Christa Broullon.

“That was the plan, to work until he died,” said Broullon, who worked alongside Galison for 31 years.

Galison’s daughter-in-law Kristin Galison, a fellow local defense attorney, said he would tell her of his law career: “I don’t want to stop. I think I’m still able to help people.”

Many who knew him well agreed that while Edward Galison used his often garish and sometimes irreverent neckties to try to connect with jurors as a regular guy, he was a ruthless competitor in the courtroom.

"I used to say the best thing I did was, I married his son so this way I never had to go up against him as a DA," added Kristin Galison, a former Nassau prosecutor who later went on to try cases with Galison.

“He was always prepared and he had a certain style in that courtroom that made him a legend among our legal community here,” said David Haber, a Mineola attorney who knew Edward Galison for years after growing up in the same school district as his children.

The veteran litigator’s death came six months after the Criminal Courts Bar Association of Nassau County honored him as “Practitioner of the Year.” The association’s president, Gregory Grizopoulos, said Edward Galison knew that if he could get a jury to laugh, they’d be on his side.

But Grizopoulos said Galison also wasn’t afraid to “scrap it up,” including with judges when it came to advocating for clients. “He was not afraid to get into the ring and fight,” Grizopoulos added.

Not every judge appreciated Galison’s neckties.

He had one depicting pigs with wings wearing police uniforms and another with an image of Pinocchio in a police uniform with one hand on the Bible that he liked to wear when cross-examining law enforcement officers.

For a 2012 Newsday profile of Galison, a judge recalled working as a law clerk and Galison wore a tie with an image of a naked woman on it during jury selection. It was a robbery case in which Galison represented a sex worker.

Galison told Newsday he offered to get the judge presiding in that case the same tie after he called Galison up to the bench upon noticing it after the selection of 11 jurors.

Then after a series of exchanges between Galison, the prosecutor and the judge, the judge told the jurors one of the lawyers was “creating a carnival-like atmosphere” and declared a mistrial.

The next day, Galison showed up for a new round of jury selection in the case wearing the same necktie.

“I take my work seriously,” Galison also told Newsday for the article. “I don’t take myself seriously.”

Another tie that Galison wore to work over the years declared: “I’m too sexy for my tie.” But his unique qualities extended beyond his garb.

Born in 1939 in Florida, Galison left his family’s Coral Gables home and moved to New York City on his own at age 16 after his parents refused to sign off on a minor league baseball contract the Dodgers offered him, Zuflacht and Broullon recalled.

Galison, who had the support of a brother who lived nearby, finished high school at the Franklin School on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, according to his family.

He attended Adelphi University as an undergraduate. Years later, he commuted to law school in Albany while living with his family in Great Neck.

“He drove to Albany three times a week. He would drive up there, do his classes and then drive home because he was married and I was born and he also had a job as a private investigator at that time,” recalled his daughter Laura Adams of Wantagh.

“I think that people in the courthouse will be talking about him and telling stories about him for a long time,” added his daughter Marni Kagan of Manhattan, a former Nassau prosecutor.

A father of three and grandfather of six, Galison’s first marriage to the now-late Barbara Boyar ended in divorce after almost 20 years. He later married Barbara Glazier, who died four years ago.

Galison’s son, fellow Nassau litigator David Galison, predeceased him in 2015 after a battle with cancer.

Besides the practice of law, Galison also loved to travel the world, play tennis and read. He had the dietary peculiarities of ordering steak “burnt” and claiming “to have never, ever had pizza in his whole life,” said Zuflacht.

Galison’s family held a Wednesday memorial service at Beney Funeral Home in Syosset and said his remains will be cremated.