G-Men Bid to Boot Madoff's Lawyer

G-Men Bid to Bounce Bernie Madoff's Lawyer From Case
The New York Law Journal by Mark Hamblett - March 4, 2009

A hearing is scheduled for today on the claim of federal prosecutors that the attorney for Bernard Madoff, Ira Sorkin of Dickstein Shapiro, is laboring under a conflict of interest in his representation of the accused operator of a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme. Southern District Judge Leonard Sand will hear from both sides on whether there is an actual conflict. If he finds one, he will then go on to inquire whether Mr. Madoff would waive any rights to claim the conflict affected the quality of his defense. It has been reported that one alleged conflict is that Mr. Sorkin represented two accountants in a 1992 case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The accountants were later linked to Mr. Madoff. Another reason for the hearing is that Mr. Sorkin's name was on a list of more than 13,000 client accounts in the bankruptcy filing of Bernard L. Madoff Securities. Mr. Sorkin told the Law Journal last month that the account referred to in the bankruptcy filing belonged to his late father and then his mother. The reason Mr. Sorkin's name appeared on the list was that his mother's mail was sent to his house for several years. "There is no conflict because I was never a client, customer or had any beneficial interest in an account at the Madoff firm," he said.