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The case against attorney Mitch Kossoff is shining a light on lax escrow oversight, one in which laws are more punitive than preventative.

May 10, 2021 at 11:51 AM Shares5 A lot changed in 2020, but when it comes to lawyering, it didn’t really slow the time-honored tradition of attorneys raiding client escrow funds as their own piggy banks. In fact, New York reports that while the total number of claims were down last year, the amount of pilfering actually went up. Hey, it’s a tough economy and there’s a whole bunch of money just sitting right there. What’s to stop a lawyer from using a smidgen to make ends meet except for a basic appreciation for legal ethics? The Lawyers Fund for Client Protection, a state agency that ...

Law Beat: Theft by attorneys still a problem, even amid pandemic FacebookTwitterEmail Timothy O'Sullivan with Lawyers Fund for Client Protection, testifies during a public hearing of the Commission on Statewide Attorney Discipline, held at the New York State Court of Appeals on Tuesday, July 28, 2015, in Albany, N.Y. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)PAUL BUCKOWSKI Not even a pandemic could slow down one of the longest-standing practices of shady lawyers in New York state: theft. The Lawyers Fund for Client Protection, a state agency that compensates victims of crooked and extremely negligent ...

Conflicts of interest remain a paramount ethical concern, as lawyers owe a duty of loyalty to clients. Rule 1.7 of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct prohibits lawyers from having conflicts of interest between existing clients, but lawyers also often owe a duty of loyalty to former clients under Rule 1.9 and prospective clients under Rule 1.18.

The New Jersey Supreme Court has appointed Norberto A. Garcia to serve as trustee of the state's Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection, and he's planning on drawing from his background in ethics to give back to the public during his five-year term.