PARAMUS —€” Sean Callagy started to notice his vision problems as center fielder for Emerson High School and later for the Columbia University baseball team.
He was fast, he hit well, and he was normally a good fielder.
But he started to lose fly balls in the light.
Callagy has a condition called retinitis pigmentosa. The 46-year-old has been slowly losing his vision since those days in center field and is now legally blind.
He’s known about the disease his whole life. It’s hereditary: His grandfather and brother both had it.
The loss of his eyesight has accelerated in recent years. He recently stopped being able to play catch with his son, also a baseball player at Emerson High.
“My whole life has been fighting the clock,” Callagy said.
Callagy has fast-tracked his life as a result. The River Vale resident formed his own law firm in 1999, when he was 29, winning two verdicts of more than $27 million each in the past two years.
Callagy still has some vision: He can walk around his office in Paramus with little trouble. But he can’t drive, and he can only see a letter at a time while reading, in a profession that requires him to parse through piles of documents.
While trying a case in Arizona representing a Phoenix businessman who claimed his former business partner assaulted him, committed fraud and stole his company, Callagy relied on law partner Michael Smikun to read documents for him in court. Outside of court, Callagy uses iPad apps to read documents out loud and listens to the audio of videotaped depositions. His assistant, Taylor Gallo, takes care of driving.
Smikun said Callagy’s vision has slipped significantly over the past two years. In that time, he’s come to rely more on Smikun.
“We have a form of mind-meld where I just understand what he wants to accomplish,” he said.
While Callagy can’t always read people’s body language when he’s cross-examining them, and sometimes misses seeing an extended handshake, he “still has a great legal mind,” Smikun said.
“He’s found a way to be extraordinarily effective as a litigator despite the fact that he can’t read documents or emails,” he said.
Callagy has a Blackberry because he can feel the keys and uses it to take copious notes. He said he’s honed his memory and speaking ability to compensate for his loss of vision.
It’s clear Callagy loves talking about law: He goes into animated explanations when describing the case in Arizona.
Since he started his firm, his office has grown to employ 100 people and opened a satellite location in Arizona. His goal is to keep growing.
“I would love to have offices all over the country,” he said.
He has moments of fear and frustration at the prospect of losing his vision. He gets emotional speaking about losing sight of his daughter at her soccer games.
But Callagy, who is Christian, said he believes he won’t lose his sight completely. He believes science, whether through gene therapy or retinal cameras or some other advancement, will restore his vision.
“I believe whole-heartedly that this is not going to happen,” he said. “I remain 100 percent in my belief that I will be seeing better when I am 50 or 60 than I do today.”
Myles Ma may be reached at mma@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@MylesMaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Fight against the clock for lawyer losing his eyesight
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