Day Pitney partners Michael Furey and David Waizer were recognized in the inaugural NJBIZ Vanguard Series: Leaders in the Law. To develop the series, NJBIZ selected local attorneys who stood out for their roles in important cases or were instrumental in giving back to their profession by providing opportunities for other lawyers to get to the next level in their careers.

Furey was recognized for his role representing three New Jersey-based hospitals, CentraState Medical Center in Freehold; Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck; and Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, in the oft-publicized case against Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield relating to its OMNIA tiered insurance plan. As noted in the series, after Bergen County Superior Court Judge Robert Contillo ordered Horizon to disclose a report and related materials used to determine the health care providers to be included in Horizon's OMNIA plan, Furey told NJBIZ "With Judge Contillo's decision, the public should finally have an opportunity to learn the truth behind OMNIA. If Horizon truly believes that healthcare is an important issue to the public, then it should stop its efforts to hide the documents."

Waizer, who rejoined Day Pitney last year to structure and expand the firm's Startup practice, was recognized for developing an event that put nine startup businesses referred by Israel's Economic Mission to North American in front of venture capitalists, including from the firm's Family Office practice. Waizer told NJBIZ, "We wanted to create an environment to create high quality deal flow to the family office audience." The series also notes Waizer's role as a mentor in Rutgers University's Collaborative for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization, through which Ph.D. and MBA candidates take school patents and create business plans around them.

The complete profiles can be viewed here.