Health scare leads attorney to forge a new path

The reason Southwest Florida attorney Richard Annunziata quit his partner-level job in the summer of 2016 is a heartbreaker: Stage IV stomach cancer that had gotten so bad doctors called his wife and suggested he move to hospice. Twice.

“I retired,” says Annunziata, who had been with Ohio-based Brennan Manna Diamond's Bonita Springs office for a decade, “so I could spend what I thought was the last year of my life with my family.”

But with a rigorous treatment plan, including multiple trips to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, Annunziata's health improved. He ultimately beat cancer.