New Issues for Lawyer Who 'Worked' 1,286 Days in One Year
Updated: A New York lawyer who reportedly was simultaneously listed as a full-time employee of five Long Island school districts for which he worked as legal counsel is seeing some fallout over a newspaper article about the situation.
Lawrence Reich, 67, has now been suspended and asked to resign by a Garden City law firm at which he has been working as counsel—although a partner says he doesn’t think Reich has violated any laws. And FBI agents have served subpoenas on the five school districts, seeking financial records, reports Newsday. The New York state comptroller has also notified four of the five school districts that it plans to audit them.
“Based on the publicity, it’s not any good to have him at the firm,” says Steven Schlesinger, a partner of Jaspan, Schlesinger, Hoffman, of Reich. “I don’t need P.R. liabilities.”
Newsday couldn’t reach Reich for comment about the current situation. However, he told the newspaper earlier that he had done nothing wrong, as discussed in a previous ABAJournal.com post.
“I followed essentially a practice that was very common among my colleagues in the industry,” he told Newsday, adding “I don’t file these papers” submitted by school districts concerning their employees. “I don’t have the faintest idea what they’re filing for me.”
As discussed in subsequent ABAJournal.com posts, parallel federal and state investigations are now ongoing over Reich’s reported multiple employment. Meanwhile, the state attorney general has asked all 124 Long Island school districts to provide information about their payments to legal counsel, and another Long Island attorney reportedly said in a letter that such multiple employment is routine.
Updated at 1:49 p.m., Feb. 26.
