Meet the Bar Leaders: Michael Farkas’ act of rebellion was to join the Army
Michael Farkas was destined to be a Court Street lawyer. His grandfather was a New York State Supreme Court judge in Brooklyn and his father was a homicide prosecutor who introduced him to the Brooklyn DA’s Office from a very young age.
“As early as 5 years old, dad [George Farkas] was taking me to the DA’s Office and I was meeting his buddies, seeing the camaraderie, touring the courts and jails, and reading newspaper articles about cases they handled,” Farkas said. “Criminal law became something I really wanted to do. Some people wanted to become firemen, others astronauts, but after being exposed to that environment, that’s all I wanted to do.”
However, Farkas was never one for cookie-cutter molds and didn’t want to follow his father. He was a history buff, and his grandfather Justice Samuel Greenstein, who served as a combat engineer in WWII (and later as supervising judge of Brooklyn’s Civil Court), opened his eyes to the world of the U.S. armed forces.