The NJSBA’s Members Who Inspire program is an ongoing series that turns the spotlight on members and highlights how they are making a difference in their career and outside of the law. The program offers an opportunity for members to share their unique stories with their colleagues, inspire future legal professionals and strengthen awareness of the profession and Association. This story features James E. Trabilsy, who has defied the medical odds as a dialysis patient of 44 years, all while maintaining a successful law practice.
A week before taking the bar exam in summer 1981, doctors gave James E. Trabilsy a grim prescription usually reserved for a patient more than twice his age.
Fresh out of law school, Trabilsy learned he would have to start dialysis. That, or the kidney disease he developed in college would claim his life. The prognosis would shatter most people, but Trabilsy took it in stride, putting off treatment until he passed his exams and won a spot at a top law firm.
At 68, and 44 years into his dialysis regimen, the Watchung attorney has built a niche practice as one of the most respected DWI attorneys in New Jersey. He’s also a medical wonder.
Doctors and colleagues marvel at Trabilsy’s ability to maintain a high-level law practice despite his health issues. He’s almost certainly the longest-surviving dialysis patient in New Jersey, possibly the nation. But if you ask Trabilsy his advice for anyone dealing with a long and debilitating condition, his answer is simple: do your best to ignore it.
“When I started dialysis in September 1981, the doctors told my parents in would live 10 or 12 years, but for a long time I never knew that. I try to live as if I never found out,” Trabilsy said. “I tell people that god gave me the ability to not realize how sick I was my whole life.”
A normal kidney functions 24/7. Trabilsy’s works within a smaller window – three hours a day for six days a week. On a typical day, Trabilsy leaves his office at Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer P.A. in Woodbridge – where he has worked his entire 44-year career – and travels home to his in-house dialysis machine. He hooks up to the machine via two needles inserted into his arm, a job once reserved for his mother until his wife took over duties. One draws his blood into a filter the size of toaster that acts as his kidney, cleaning his blood before it feeds back into his arm through the other needle. When the cycle is finished, Trabilsy is often pounds lighter.
In all, the routine takes about five hours – one hour to ready the machine, three to dialyze and one to wind down. Confined to a chair, and with the use of only one arm, Trabilsy still finds time to be productive.
“They call it multitasking. I sometimes do four things at once – I dialyze, I talk on the phone with clients – because they’re also home at night – I ride a recumbent bike for a half hour while I’m sitting down and I watch the news in the background,” Trabilsy said.
It’s a grueling schedule, but the only one Trabilsy knows.
“To live 44 years while undergoing dialysis treatment is outstanding. I don’t know any other case or patient who has lived as long and healthy. It’s extremely rare,” according to Dr. Samir Sutaria, the chief of nephrology at JFK University Medical Center.
Sutaria is Trabilsy’s third nephrologist – many dialysis patients only have one. The average mortality for someone on dialysis, especially if they have diabetes or heart issues, is generally three to five years, according to Sutaria.
Information on who holds the record for longest-surviving dialysis patient is murky. Guiness World Records presented the award in 2018 to a U.K. man, who survived 43 years and counting. Another Guiness record gave the title to a Canadian man for 48 years of dialysis treatment.
It’s difficult to know for certain, but Sutaria believes Trabilsy could be the longest-surviving person on dialysis in the country.
“I’ve discussed this with my colleagues and none of them have had patients who have approached this kind of longevity,” Sutaria said. “Jim has a great personality. He’s charming and likes to have fun. For him to not just continue to work, but be a good lawyer while maintaining his quality of life, is remarkable.”
Trabilsy had a clean bill of health until he reached college. A Plainfield native, he graduated from Plainfield High School in 1974 and enrolled in Bucknell University with ambitions of attending Villanova Law School. In his final year at Bucknell, he woke up one day with swollen ankles. Doctors diagnosed him with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a chronic kidney disease that causes scarring and damages the kidney's ability to filter.
The diagnosis forced him to shift plans and attend Seton Hall Law School instead, where he would be closer to home for regular doctor’s visits and blood tests. He commuted from law school on the old Raritan train to Plainfield, where he lived at home with his parents. He stayed with them until they died a decade ago.
“They kept me alive. They were angels. They devoted their lives to help me not only survive but thrive. Without them I never would have become a lawyer and stayed at the Wilentz firm,” Trabilsy said.
After graduating from Seton Hall, Trabilsy joined Wilentz in September 1981. One week later, he started dialysis sessions twice a week. For two years, no one at the firm knew about his condition.
“I kept it a secret because I didn’t want people to judge me. I wanted to prove that I could do the work,” Trabilsy said. “Also, things like the ADA didn’t exist back then. Disabilities were more stigmatized.”
Trabilsy often left the office at midnight as a young attorney, honing his skills in criminal work before developing a specialty in drunk driving offenses. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, he would leave early to drive from Woodbridge to Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center in Plainfield for four-hour dialysis treatments.
“It’s funny. There were about eight of us who started at the Wilentz firm in September 1981. I was a young guy out of law school. The others probably thought I was out partying during the week and wouldn’t last at the firm. Meanwhile I was in the hospital hooked up to a machine,” Trabilsy said.
The Watchung attorney found himself in great company during his early years at the firm. Retired state Supreme Court Justice Barry T. Albin, who was part of Trabilsy’s team, remembers the late nights with his former colleague as they each tried to make a name for themselves in the profession.
“It’s difficult to imagine any person who has carried his adversity with more grace and acceptance. He’s lived his life as if he has no illness,” Justice Albin said. “Among municipal court prosecutors, judges and managers around the state, he’s made friends wherever he’s gone. He’s one of the most beloved figures in that bar and even the greater bar.”
Colleagues who have worked with Trabilsy for decades revere his genial nature in the face of overwhelming hardship.
“I’ve known Jim since 1981, when he started here. He’s a remarkable individual considering the challenges he’s had,” said Brian J. Molloy, who served as the firm’s president and managing director. “People who know him like to talk first about who he is as a person before they talk about him as a lawyer. It’s those personal traits that really shine.”
Angelo J. Cifaldi, Wilentz’s current president and managing director, said Trabilsy inspires the firm every day by “consistently delivering exceptional work and unwavering commitment to our clients while undergoing his dialysis treatments.”
“Jim approaches life and work with a positive attitude, a great sense of humor, and excels under his challenging circumstances. He serves as a true inspiration to everyone at the firm,” Cifaldi said.
Anne S. Babineau, another longtime colleague, remarked that Trabilsy “is the most personable and easy-going guy. When I think about that math of it, the fact that he’s able to do his dialysis and carry on a full-time practice, it’s incredible.”
At the firm, Trabilsy’s practice involves all phases of the municipal courts. Drunk driving is his forte, with clients that span all walks of life, including lawyers, police officers, doctors and even judges. His skill in this area has won him several professional accolades around the state, including the NJSBA’s Municipal Court Practice Award, a similar honor from the Middlesex County Bar Association and selection to the Supreme Court Municipal Court Practice Committee.
In award speeches, Trabilsy often credits the NJSBA and its members with supporting his career. He tells a story about NJSBA Past President Matthias D. Dileo, who was the first person he revealed his illness to at Wilentz. Dileo had given him an assignment to appear in court two nights in a row, which conflicted with his dialysis appointment. After years of secrecy, he confided in Dileo that he had been on kidney dialysis since he started at the firm.
“For two years no one knew this crazy schedule I was keeping,” Trabilsy said. “I remember Matt looked at me and said, ‘you know my cousin is on dialysis, and I’m familiar with it, and I know what you’re going through.’ He said, ‘Jim, I want you to know that the firm and I won’t view you any differently. You’re not disabled. It’s just an inconvenience and we’ll help you with that inconvenience.’ It was people like that who got me through.”
As for the key to his longevity, Trabilsy said there’s no grand secret to explain it. Luck plays a big role, but it’s the support system that matters most, he said.
“Love does a lot that people don’t really understand. It’s the hospitals, the doctors, the love of my family – my mother, father, brother, sister and wife – and the loving support of a lot of close friends who have helped me along,” Trabilsy said.
Of course, having a sense of humor goes a long way, Trabilsy said.
“I tell my colleagues to go on dialysis and try looking as good as I do.”