Lippman is 'a crook,' Dying Woman Tells the NY Daily News

Michael Lippman is 'a crook,' the late Lillian Cohen tells Daily News
The New York Daily News by Greg B. Smith - October 11th 2009

Lillian Cohen died of cancer last week in Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. But for the last month, from her hospital bed, she was trying to get the word out on Michael Lippman. "He's a crook!" the 82-year-old said two weeks ago in a weak, raspy voice as she fought off post-chemotherapy nausea. Her sister, Sara Schenendorf, hired Lippman as a private lawyer in February 2007 after a friend died and left her $130,000 in assets. She'd hired him previously on another matter and had problems, but decided to give him another shot. Lippman immediately demanded a $2,500 down payment on his $7,800 legal fee, but waited 10 months to file basic legal papers giving Schenedorf her executor powers in Bronx Surrogate Court. This occurred after Cohen went to court and made a fuss. By spring 2008, the sisters said they gave him $3,000 and a new sofa after he told them he was broke and sleeping on the floor of his office near the train station in Hastings on Hudson. Schenendorf said Lippman told her the will was "air tight" and could not be challenged, then started to press her to comply with a cousin's request for jewelry in a safe deposit box. Meanwhile, Cohen got increasingly frustrated that the estate still had not been settled and the assets transferred to her sister, the sole heir. Cohen said Lippman finally arranged to transfer the assets in February 2009, but only after she threatened to report him to the Bronx district attorney. "He knows he can push her around, but not me!" Cohen said as her sister nodded in agreement. Schenendorf said she went back to Lippman in 2007 because in spite of everything, "I had so much trust in Michael. I really liked him." Lippman did not return calls seeking comment.