Perry Weitz

Perry Weitz is an American attorney and partner at the Manhattan law firm Weitz & Luxenberg, which he co-founded in 1986.[1][2] He is also the co-chairman of Counsel Financial, a financing company that gives loans to small law firms that specialize in personal injury.[3] In 2015, Weitz and his firm were caught in a scandal involving referral fees for asbestos victims via kickbacks to New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who was convicted on corruption and bribery charges.

Background

In his bio on the Weitz & Luxenberg website, the law firm writes: “It can cause even the most ruthless corporate CEO to tug nervously at his shirt collar and gulp hard when told that squaring off against him in court will be the brawny, knock-out-king of a law firm co-founded in 1986 by super attorney Perry Weitz, Esq.”[2]

Weitz started the law firm with an asbestos lawsuit. He sued on behalf of 36 workers who became sick after working at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. His suit got his clients $75 million. Of that $75 million, $22.5 million went to Weitz.[4] The firm now makes 60 percent of its revenue from litigation related to asbestos cases.[4]

According to the New York Times:[4]

The law practice has supported an opulent lifestyle for the firm’s founders. Mr. Weitz, for instance, owns a seven-bedroom, nine-and-a-half-bathroom home on 509 acres just outside Aspen, Colo.

Morris Eisen

Weitz's first job was at Morris Eisen, P.C., a law firm.[5] In the 1990s, seven attorneys, investigators and office workers from Morris Eisen were convicted for a variety of crimes all centered around faking evidence. The defendants all appealed, and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions.[5]

In confirming the convictions, the court wrote:[5]

The methods by which the frauds were accomplished included pressuring accident witnesses to testify falsely, paying individuals to testify falsely that they had witnessed accidents, paying unfavorable witnesses not to testify, and creating false photographs, documents, and physical evidence of accidents for use before and during trial.

Perry Weitz was never charged or convicted. Morris Eisen, Weitz’s father-in-law, served three years in prison.[5]

Asbestos litigation

In 2008, seven trust funds paid $2.4 billion in asbestos-related litigation claims. Attorneys received a 25 percent fee, or around $600 million that year. Weitz served on the committees for six of the seven trust funds.[6]

In a 2002 article by The New York Times, “A Surge in Asbestos Suits, Many by Healthy Plaintiffs,” a law professor at Yeshiva University, Lester Brickman, said, "Sick people with legitimate claims represent a tiny fraction of the claims being brought.” In response, Weitz was quoted in the article as saying, "Juries throughout the United States have said that these people deserve compensation . . . You really have to have faith in the jury system."[7]

Politics, campaign contributions and Sheldon Silver

Weitz is a director of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association. The association is "a heavy lobbying presence in Albany," according to The New York Times.[8]

In 2010, Kathleen M. Rice, the Nassau County district attorney, ran for New York state attorney general. In 2009, Rice hired Weitz's son, Justin Weitz, as an assistant district attorney. In the 2010 election cycle, Weitz and his partner, along with three other attorneys at Weitz & Luxenberg, contributed a total of $236,698 to Rice's campaign.[1]

In November 2015, Sheldon Silver, the former speaker of the New York State Assembly, was convicted on bribery and corruption charges. Silver sent $500,000 in state money to an oncologist who in return referred patients to Weitz & Luxenberg. Here is how the arrangement worked:[9]

  1. Silver steered $500,000 in state grants to fund the asbestos research of Dr. Robert N. Taub, Director of Columbia University’s Mesothelioma Center.
  2. Dr. Taub, in turn, referred his patients to Perry Weitz's law firm.
  3. Weitz's firm, in turn, paid Silver $3.9 million for referrals plus $1.4 million in salary, "though he never performs legal work," wrote the New York Times.

References

  1. 1 2 Hakim, Danny (2010-05-18). "Weitz Law Firm Donating to Kathleen Rice's Race". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-07-28.
  2. 1 2 "Perry Weitz Co-Founding Member, Consumer Protection, Defective Drugs and Devices, Environmental Pollution, Mesothelioma and Asbestos, Personal Injury and Malpractice". www.weitzlux.com. Weitz & Luxenberg P.C. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
  3. ↑ Hakim, Danny (2008-08-05). "Loans From Assembly Speaker Aid Firm That Finances Trial Lawyers". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-07-28.
  4. 1 2 3 Buettner, Dionne Searcey, Anemona Hartocollis, Russ; Chen, David W. (2015-01-24). "In Silver Case, U.S. Cites Link to Litigation Tied to Asbestos". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-07-28.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Toobin, Jeffrey (27 January 2015). "Sheldon Silver and the Lawyers of New York". The New Yorker. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
  6. ↑ Korris, Steve (2010-08-05). "Rand's asbestos report shows lucrative outcome for lawyer trust fund managers". Legal Newsline. Retrieved 2016-07-28.
  7. ↑ Berenson, Alex (10 April 2002). "A Surge in Asbestos Suits, Many by Healthy Plaintiffs". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
  8. ↑ Rashbaum, Thomas Kaplan, William K.; Craig, Susanne (2014-12-08). "After Ethics Panel's Shutdown, Loopholes Live On in Albany". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-07-28.
  9. ↑ Fessenden, Ford; Desantis, Alicia (2015-01-22). "The Case Against Sheldon Silver". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-07-28.
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