Stanley N. Alpert

I am a:

Speaker

I speak about:

Best Selling Author, Corporate Responsibility, Crime (International and Domestic)/Homeland Security/Terrorism, Environment and Green Movement, Law, Negotiation, Writing

My Bio:

Stanley N. Alpert is the author of the critically-acclaimed non-fiction book that Joseph Wambaugh says is “too wild to be fiction,” The Birthday Party: A Memoir of Survival, released by Putnam in January 2007. The movie rights have been optioned by United Artists under the new guidance of Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner. www.stanleyalpert.com.

Alpert was a federal environmental prosecutor when, walking home one night in 1998, he was kidnapped at gunpoint by a gang intent on stealing from his bank accounts. He spent his entire 38th birthday in captivity, negotiating to save his own life and memorizing clues that, if the perpetrators did not kill him, could be used by law enforcement to capture the criminals. And, in fact, after a 25-hour ordeal that is at times petrifying and at others hysterical, Alpert made it out and related his seemingly tall tale to the FBI and NYPD, who captured the bad guys with lightning speed. Stan decided to write about his experience and the investigation in a memoir, so he took some writing classes and rolled up his sleeves, transforming himself into an author.

When not being kidnapped, Alpert is an environmental lawyer. At the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Alpert took on a broad array of polluters. He defeated mining giant Phelps Dodge after a trial where he showed that the company had purposely shirked its environmental obligations. He settled another case on the eve of trial with ExxonMobil after that company manipulated sample results to try to convince the government to go away, obtaining one of the highest civil penalties the government ever got, and forcing ExxonMobil to buy land on Staten Island that will be preserved forever. He got hard jail time for an asbestos removal contractor who sent an ex-prisoner and an immigrant into a rip and skip job without any protective equipment. He was highly decorated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice.

Now, when not busy on book tour, Alpert is a private environmental lawyer bringing the sort of cases popularized by the movie Erin Brockovich. He is New York counsel to California’s Girardi & Keese of Brockovich fame on the Greenpoint oil spill case – the largest spill in Amercian history, sitting under Greenpoint, Brooklyn like a time bomb. He investigates and brings lawsuits in behalf of people or companies harmed by pollution all around the country.

Stan grew up in Brooklyn, New York, went to State University in New York, and got his law degree at University of Pennsylvania. He is a frequent lecturer on environmental issues, and now gives talks about his book, lessons of the spirit learned from the experience, negotiating skills under fire, and crime in America.

What I do best:

Stanley N. Alpert Speech Topic(s)


 Negotiations at Gunpoint

Stanley N. Alpert will present a frightening yet humorous discussion of his kidnapping by a gang of robbers in New York City. He was a federal prosecutor at the time, who had learned on the job some superb negotiating skills. Hear from Alpert about how those skills were sharpened one dark winter’s New York City night, when only the most careful responses were enough to prevent his captors from pulling the trigger. Lawyers and businesspeople will find inspiration in the skills of connecting with one’s adversary, understanding their position, and giving answers that remain true to your own side’s position while respecting and accommodating that of the other, in order to get to a good resolution. In this case, Alpert negotiated for his very life, and is here to tell the tale.

 Get What You Want

The last chapter of Stan Alpert’s critically-acclaimed book is entitled Get What You Want. In a random act of terror, Alpert was grabbed off the streets of New York and held at gunpoint for 25 hours. In a moving and inspiring presentation, Alpert takes us to the other side, where he thought he would lose his life, and then brings us to the present in which he has it back. He describes what he learned is the great strength that is within each us and that is revealed in moments of intense crisis Alpert insists that all of us should live our dreams to the fullest – figure out what they are and then do what it takes to realize them. When you have been held at gunpoint for 25 hours and almost murdered, you realize that to do otherwise is a crime in itself.

 Enforce or Sustain

As former Chief of Environmental Litigation for the U.S. Attorney, Stan Alpert learned first hand the price companies must pay for decimating the land, water, and air that we breathe. In private practice, he litigated over MTBE, a product the oil companies were told by their own engineers would foul drinking water sources, and having made the wrong choice to insert it anyway, they now pay a very high price. Hear Stan discuss environmental enforcement and the new triple bottom line business paradigm where companies are choosing green instead of mean.

I charge a fee of:

$5K-$10K