Ex-S&C Lawyer Denies Conflict in Brooke Astor Representation
The former chair of Sullivan & Cromwell’s trusts and estates practice rejected suggestions by a prosecutor yesterday that he had divided loyalties when he represented both Brooke Astor and her son, Anthony Marshall.
Testifying in the trial of Marshall, longtime Astor lawyer Henry Christensen III acknowledged he represented both mother and son, but said in estate planning matters, he represented only Astor, the New York Law Journal reports.
Marshall is accused of taking advantage of his mother’s declining mental condition to benefit himself and another lawyer, Francis X. Morrissey. He is also charged with larceny for taking a $2 million commission on the $10 million sale of a painting owned by his mother.
Christensen said he “certainly was not” told of the $2 million commission, Bloomberg reports in its trial coverage. He said he knew a doctor had diagnosed Astor with Alzheimer’s, but he was not aware of the severity. The New York Daily News and the New York Times also have stories on the testimony.
Christensen told of Marshall’s increasing interest in his mother’s estate matters and his concern about providing for his wife, Charlene, after his death. Christensen testified earlier this week that Astor was embarrassed at Marshall’s marriage to Charlene, whom he married after she left her husband, a priest at a church Astor had attended.
Christensen told of Marshall’s opposition to Astor’s plans to rewrite her will to give her summer home in Maine to Marshall’s son, Phillip. Marshall prevailed and Astor signed the property over to him outright, Christensen said.
Astor didn’t want to leave anything to Charlene, but she “had a very strong wish to make her son happy,” Christensen said. “She had become increasingly dependent upon him. … She was looking to him for guidance and he was participating more in her thought process.”
Prosecutors say Christensen, now a partner at McDermott, Will & Emery, was removed from estate planning work for Astor after he refused to draft later will changes increasing Marshall’s share of the estate.
