Once described as 'creepy' in judge's opinion, former Sedgwick partner says he's been vindicated
Once a Sedgwick partner, New York lawyer Scott Greenspan says a judge’s opinion citing his alleged “creepy” behavior while monitoring a trial destroyed his career.
Now Greenspan says he’s been vindicated by an ethics panel and he hopes the news will be reported as widely as the judge’s original remarks, the Albany Times-Union reports.
Greenspan’s behavior was the focus of a November 2013 opinion by Onondaga County-based state Supreme Court Justice Deborah Karalunas, who overturned a jury verdict for the defense in a dental malpractice case because of his alleged conduct. Greenspan was monitoring the case for an insurer client.
Karalunas’ decision said she questioned jurors after the verdict, and they asked her about the man who was “stalking” them. According to a transcript in her decision, Karalunas told Greenspan that the jurors described their interactions with him and “they used the word you were creepy, that you were very seedy, that you were in the elevator with them frequently, that you followed them to places where they had lunch.”
Karalunas said one juror asked Greenspan in the elevator who he was, and Greenspan replied: “Sorry, but I can’t answer your question. No one can talk to the jury.” Karalunas said she then interviewed one juror under oath without anyone else present, and the juror reported being “bothered” and “scared” by Greenspan.
But a New York disciplinary committee heard a different version of events and told Greenspan in June that it was taking no action, the story reports. The committee cited affidavits of all six jurors who said Greenspan had done nothing wrong and there was no mention of him in deliberations. The jurors—besides the one who had reported being scared—said they didn’t find Greenspan intimidating at all. The New York Law Journal (sub. req.) had a July report on the June decision by the First Departmental Disciplinary Committee of the Appellate Division.
Greenspan told the Times Union that the judge’s opinion led him to leave his position at Sedgwick. “My professional life was essentially destroyed,” Greenspan told the newspaper. “I was running cases worth hundreds of millions of dollars as lead counsel and lead trial counsel and this judge’s decision cost me it all. I lost my clients. I lost my job.”
Sedgwick general counsel Michael McGeehon told the New York Law Journal that Greenspan left the firm voluntarily. “In my view and in Sedgwick’s view, Scott did nothing wrong and nothing improper,” McGeehon told the publication.
