Grand was born in Gdańsk, Poland, in 1930, and nine years later emigrated to America with his family.
[1][2] In 1972 he won a $3.5m personal injury claim, which was the largest such award in American legal history (at that time).
Subsequently, he founded the Inner Circle of Advocates, an exclusive legal society with membership restricted to, then, 50 lawyers[3] who had won more than $1 million in damages.
[1][2] The Richard Grand Society was arguably still more exclusive, as membership was limited to only 25 lawyers.
[5] Grand never retired from the legal profession, and was still practicing when he died in San Francisco in April 2013.