Akerman Partner Dies Trying to Save Wife in River Accident
A partner at Akerman Senterfitt in Miami died during a Colorado vacation when he tried to rescue his wife after she slipped on wet rock and fell into a river.
Lawyer Steven Chaykin, 57, was a former federal prosecutor in the law firm’s white-collar criminal and government investigations group. As he went to the aid of his wife, he also slipped on the rock and fell into the river where he hit his head and was knocked unconscious, the Miami Herald reports. He was carried down a waterfall, where hikers found his body face-down in the water.
Chaykin’s wife, Melissa, suffered broken bones in the accident. She was taking pictures when she slipped and fell.
Some staffers at Chaykin’s law firm answered the phone in tears when a reporter called from the Daily Business Review. Several colleagues said they were in shock at the news of Chaykin’s death. The well-respected lawyer had previously served as chief of the public corruption division of the U.S. attorney’s office, serving under Kendall Coffey, the publication reports.
“It’s tragic, but the means of his death—trying to save his wife—is the way he lived his professional life,” Coffey told the publication. “He was always a guy with a lot of courage.”
