QUALIFICATIONS

• Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit Civil Mediator

• Florida Supreme Court Certified County Civil Mediator

• J.D., New York Law School 1980 cum laude; Editor in Chief, New York Law School Law Review 1979-1980; Author: Comment, Zurcher v. Stanford Daily, 24 N.Y.L.S. L. Rev. 943 (1979)

• B.A., St. John’s University 1971

• Admitted to the New York Bar 1981 (not admitted to practice law in Florida)

Ed is a Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit and County Civil Mediator. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Ed graduated from St. John’s University with a B.A. in History, and went on to earn his law degree from New York Law School, where he graduated cum laude and served as Editor in Chief of the Law Review.

Early in his law practice, Ed was associated with several distinguished law firms, including five years as a Senior Associate in the Litigation Department at the international law firm of Proskauer Rose LLP. Ed then worked for five years as a partner in another New York law firm before forming his own firm, Edward F. Westfield, P.C., which handles only New York-based matters. Ed also serves as counsel to Hyderally & Co., a labor and employment law firm with offices in New York and New Jersey, and as counsel to David A. Kapelman, P.C., a New York City firm that concentrates its practice in plaintiffs’ personal injury representation.

Ed is currently serving as a Volunteer Mediator for the Clay County Court.

EXPERIENCE

In the course of his law practice, Ed has handled a diverse array of matters for an equally diverse client base. Ed has always been guided by the ethos that his clients come first, that each client is entitled to his unswerving loyalty and that each matter demands the best service possible service. A representative sampling of the types of litigation matters Ed has handled includes: securities fraud claims, including representing individual investors in FINRA arbitrations; federal and state whistleblower claims; close corporation control fights; corporate employee “raiding” and restrictive covenants; real estate brokerage disputes; cooperative and condominium disputes; enforcement of money judgments; art dealer fraud; fraudulent conveyances; and probate litigation.

ASSOCIATIONS AND HONORS

Ed has been a member of several bar associations. Notably, Ed served for five years as a member of the New York County Bar Association’s Committee on the New York Civil Practice Law and Rules. In 1998, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York presented Ed with The Thurgood Marshall Award, for his service as pro bono counsel to a human being under a sentence of death. Ed is a non-attorney member of the St. Johns County Bar Association.

In 2017, Ed received a Commendation from the New York Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection, for his pro bono representation of a member of the public who was victimized by a dishonest attorney. Ed’s work resulted in the victim obtaining a substantial monetary recovery from the Fund.

PERSONAL

After residing in the Riverdale section of The Bronx for more than 35 years, Ed and his wife, Ann, made the decision - influenced in no small part by the disruptions wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic - to move to St. Augustine in 2020. Family considerations also played a big part in the decision: Ed’s brother John and his family have lived in St. Augustine for many years following John’s retirement from the FDNY as a decorated first responder to the 9/11 terror attack on the World Trade Center. Ed’s nephew John E. Westfield is an attorney at Canan Law in St. Augustine, and recently served as president of the St. John’s County Bar Association.

Ed and Ann’s son Daniel teaches art at St. Augustine’s Pedro Menendez High School. Daniel’s brother Michael and his family live in Rhode Island; Ed and Ann make the trip north as often as they can.

Ed and Ann are supporters of several charities, including the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, Wounded Warrior Project, St. Jude’s Hospital for Children, Shriners Children’s Hospitals and Wolfson Children’s Hospital. Ed and Ann also spend each Thursday as Volunteers at Baptist Medical Center South in Jacksonville.