1st Department Continues Dirty Job of Correcting Corruption of Last 10 Years

NY Lawyer Loses License for 30 Months Over "Exorbitant" Fees, Ethical Breaches
The New York Law Journal By Daniel Wise - February , 2008

A Manhattan divorce lawyer who took nearly $41,000 in fees from an escrow fund that had been designated for other purposes must be suspended for 2 1/2 years, the Appellate Division, First Department, ruled last week.

The panel also found that the lawyer, Leah Larsen, 68, violated ethical rules by demanding an "exorbitant" fee not backed by time records and by pressuring her client to withdraw a complaint about the fee he had made to the Dutchess County judge handling the divorce.

One judge on the panel, Justice James M. McGuire (See Profile), would have disbarred Ms. Larsen. But the majority, consisting of Justices Richard T. Andrias (See Profile), David B. Saxe (See Profile), Eugene Nardelli (See Profile) and John W. Sweeny Jr. (See Profile), found the suspension severe enough in view of Ms. Larsen's previously unblemished 28-year career.

According to the opinion in Matter of Larsen, M-5004, Ms. Larsen had told her client, Conrad Tebbetts, that he could pay her with $40,750 from the proceeds of the sale of the divorcing couple's home.

Justice James V. Brands had ordered the money be paid into Mr. Tebbetts' 401(k). Mr. Tebbetts suggested Ms. Larsen take only about $30,000 for the fee. Ms. Larsen then sent her client a one-page bill for $168,400, claiming 852 hours of work at $200 an hour without detailing her work, the decision reported.

When Mr. Tebbetts wrote to Justice Brands to complain about the bill, Ms. Larsen threatened to collect the entire $138,000 balance due at an arbitration unless he withdrew his letter to the judge.