Rikki Dascal

Rikki B. Dascal joined The Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Firm as an associate attorney in February 2022. Her practice focuses on litigating medical malpractice and civil rights matters in New York state and federal courts. Rikki meticulously handles each case from intake through settlement, trial, and appeal. While at The Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Firm, Rikki has recovered tens of millions of dollars for clients and their families through mediated settlements. Rikki also has a proven record of success at trial, most recently securing a $6,690,000 jury verdict in Kings County for a hospital’s failure to diagnose a stroke, which resulted in permanent, life-altering, devastating injuries to a 52-year-old mother.

Rikki handles medical malpractice, wrongful death, and catastrophic injury matters from intake through settlement or verdict, with a focus on the kind of rigorous preparation that produces results, from vetting the strength of medical expert opinions early in a case, to preparing witnesses to testify clearly and credibly, to building the evidentiary record needed to win. Rikki believes that cases are won long before a jury is ever seated, and she brings that same level of preparation to every client she represents. When a family is facing the aftermath of a preventable death or catastrophic injury, they need a lawyer who treats their case like it's the only one that matters. That's the standard Rikki holds herself to; aggressive advocacy grounded in meticulous preparation, so that when a case reaches a courtroom, her clients are ready.

Prior to joining the firm, Rikki sharpened her litigation instincts from the bench, serving two clerkships with the Honorable Saliann Scarpulla: first, in the Commercial Division of the New York County Supreme Court, and then in the Appellate Division, First Judicial Department. That dual perspective, trial-level and appellate, gives Rikki a rare command of how cases are actually won and how they hold up on review.

Her advocacy for vulnerable clients took shape early. As a Pro Bono Scholar with The Legal Aid Society's Housing Help Program in the Bronx, Rikki fought to keep indigent tenants in their homes in the face of eviction. She also took on systemic impact litigation as part of the Bet Tzedek Civil Litigation Clinic, working on a federal class action against a New York City agency for disability discrimination in its administration of the NYC Rent Freeze Program (Pfeffer v. NYC Department of Finance, 15-cv-3547) — experience she carried forward as a Staff Attorney through the Poverty Justice Solutions Fellowship at JASA/Legal Services for the Elderly, where she continued litigating that class action while representing low-income, elderly clients facing eviction and disability discrimination.

That throughline — standing up for people failed by powerful institutions, whether a hospital or a city agency — is what drew Rikki to plaintiffs' work, and it is what continues to drive her today. Rikki approaches every client relationship with compassion and empathy, understanding that behind each case is a family navigating one of the hardest moments of their lives. She matches that empathy with an exhaustive, detail-driven approach to the law itself: conducting thorough research into the medical, scientific, and legal issues at the heart of every case so that no fact goes unexamined and no argument is left unanswered. It is this combination of genuine care for her clients and relentless preparation that Rikki brings to every case.

Rikki lives in New York and remains deeply committed to the communities she represents, bringing the same care to every client, whether the case settles quietly or is fought to a verdict. Rikki is admitted to practice in New York State, as well as the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.