Court Overhaul Begins: Attorney Disciplinary Chief Counsel Cahill First to Go...CLICK HERE FOR FULL STORY

Thomas J. Cahill, Chief Counsel of the First Department Attorney Disciplinary Committee, was summoned to a meeting with New York State Office of Court Administration officials on Tuesday, July 17, 2007. He was told to bring along his First Deputy Chief Counsel, Sherry K. Cohen, sources say.


The two top lawyers at the State office charged with overseeing attorney ethics in the Bronx and Manhattan sat, uncomfortably, through most of the day at various high-level conferences. In the end, it was made clear that immediate changes were being made at their Departmental Disciplinary Committee. Changes that didn't necessarily include them.

Two days later, on Thursday, July 19th, Mr. Cahill called a staff meeting where he said that he had "good news." He first announced that he had a new grandchild, and then added that he had decided to resign. He was reportedly delighted to be "… one of the few who is leaving under his own steam." Sources say he indicated that he was hoping to stay on through the end of August but was awaiting 1st Department Presiding Justice Jonathan Lippman's decision on the actual date of his final day.

On Friday, Mr. Cahill began referring to his departure as "retirement."

Tom Cahill's departure comes shortly after reporters began asking questions about an alleged cover up concerning the forced resignation of a young employee at the First Department Committee on Character and Fitness (CCF). That incident reportedly involved Mr. Cahill and Ms. Cohen at the Disciplinary Committee, and the CCF's boss Sarah Josephine Hamilton and Catherine O'Hagan Wolfe, then state Appellate Division Chief Clerk, and who is now the Chief Clerk for the federal 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

One insider says that the complaints against Cahill and Cohen had "…become overwhelmingly voluminous, and simply too much to continue ignoring..." The pair had been accused of selectively implementing the politically fueled and widespread practice of indefinitely delaying or white-washing certain disciplinary investigations. "Cahill and Cohen made up their own rules," according to the insider.

One such complaint involved Thomas Cahill and the Proskauer Rose law firm, and which has been "pending" since February of 2003. The Cahill Proskauer Complaint remains a troubling thorn at the highest levels of the New York State Office of Court Administration, and one which is a high priority for the new State Chief Administrative Judge, the Honorable Ann T. Pfau.

The Cahill Proskauer issue also became a hot topic in Washington, D.C. in early 2007 at the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and the U.S. Department of Commerce (The United States Patent and Trademark Office). And it has specifically caught the attention of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, and U.S. House Representatives John D. Dingell and Nita Lowey.

The Cahill Proskauer Scandal involves many allegations: the alleged theft by Proskauer of numerous U.S. Patents from their own client; claimed losses of 17 billion dollars; and the March, 2005 bombing in Boynton Beach, Florida of the inventor-client-complainant's family mini-van.

It is alleged that Mr. Cahill masterminded the scheme to indefinitely delay complaints against Proskauer Rose, himself, and former New York State Bar Association President and Proskauer partner Steven C. Krane, Proskauer Partner Kenneth Rubenstein, chief counsel for MPEGLA, and Raymond Joao of Yonkers. It is also alleged that attorney Steven C. Krane initially interceded, with Mr. Cahill's knowledge and consent, in handling disciplinary complaints involving himself at the same time he was associated with the 1st Department in Manhattan.

Attorney Krane's conflicts were exposed when officials from the "Iviewit" company contacted Katherine O'Hagan Wolfe, who contradicted Cahill's statements and Krane's written denial of his 1st Dept roles. Ms. O'Hagan Wolfe advised that she was, in fact, on a Committee at the 1st Dept with both Cahill and Krane and that they even had a meeting that same night.

The various Cahill Proskauer issues bounced around under the public radar screen at the Court of Appeals in Albany and were ultimately transferred from the 1st Department to the 2nd Department in Brooklyn. This was done after 5 justices of the 1st Dept ruled unanimously to investigate Krane, Rubenstein and Joao for conflict of interest and the appearance of impropriety after their review of the 1st Department complaint.

The Cahill inquiry is apparently "still pending" under attorney Martin R. Gold who, insiders say, was directed to "sit on it…forever."

Earlier this year, FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. assigned additional agents to the Public Integrity/Corruption squad at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, and where agents have been actively conducting interviews.

The New York Law Journal will formally announce Mr. Cahill's departure next week.

For more information regarding the Cahill Proskauer story, see: http://www.iviewit.tv


Copyright (c) 2007 Frank Brady