WALTER J.   WIGGINS                  

Partner
e-mail:  wjw@wigginsandmasson.com

Walter J. Wiggins, with over forty years of practice in Ithaca, New York, handles all major litigation, primarily in the area of personal injury, wrongful death, malpractice and product liability, and criminal defense. He is generally assisted in those cases by his junior partner, Erin E. McKinley. During his many years of practice, Mr. Wiggins has also been involved in many corporate and real estate development transactions and in commercial litigation.

Mr. Wiggins entered into courtroom practice in the early 1950s when ninety percent of all litigation involved personal injury actions arising out of automobile accidents. However, during the past twenty years his personal injury trial experience led him into the fields of product liability and medical and legal malpractice. He has handled more medical malpractice cases than any other member of the Ithaca area bar. With the assistance of Erin McKinley, Mr. Wiggins recently won the highest jury verdict in the history of Cortland, Chemung, Cayuga, Schuyler, and Tompkins Counties in a medical malpractice action.

Mr. Wiggins was the attorney for Ithaca College for over twenty years until its growth demanded an in-house counsel program. The firm continues to represent the college in some of its commercial litigation.

Mr. Wiggins received his undergraduate education at Union College and University of Lausanne, Switzerland. He received his L.L.B. from Cornell University in 1951. He was admitted to practice before the courts of the State of New York in 1951, and is admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York and the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Wiggins is a member of the Tompkins County Bar Association (President, 1974), the New York State Bar Association, and the New York State Trial Lawyers Association.

Mr. Wiggins founded Divi Resorts, the largest privately owned hotel chain in the Caribbean, with hotels in Aruba, Nassau, Antigua, Bonaire, Cayman Brac, St. Martin, Barbados, and St. Croix. He also owns John Thomas Steakhouse, a restaurant, and La Tourelle, a luxury bed & breakfast country inn, both in Ithaca, NY. Mr. Wiggins has written several novels and has published a book of short stories, Willow Run, which draws heavily on his experiences as a trial lawyer.