Open Thread on Newsday Op-Ed
Much to my surprise, an Op-Ed of mine was given a full page in Newsday today. The topic is oversight of "baby government" lawyers, those stand-alone guys who just might be a little too confused or conflicted to provide the sole source of "legal" advice.
My solution to the problem is an inspector general, probably via the Attorney General's office, to audit and provide support and oversight to these one-man-shows. Whether they are brilliant or incompetent, well-intended or malevolent, no single lawyer is so wonderful, so brilliant, so lacking in conflict, to do the job without competent eyeballs watching.
So if you have anything to say about the piece, this would be a good place to comment.
My solution to the problem is an inspector general, probably via the Attorney General's office, to audit and provide support and oversight to these one-man-shows. Whether they are brilliant or incompetent, well-intended or malevolent, no single lawyer is so wonderful, so brilliant, so lacking in conflict, to do the job without competent eyeballs watching.
So if you have anything to say about the piece, this would be a good place to comment.
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5/9/2008 8:59 AM
Simple Justice wrote:
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday that the Pension Scandal, which Turk tells me needs a really good name that doesn't include a "gate" on the end, will involved "hundreds and hundreds" of attorneys.
According to Law.com,While his investigators have only exposed the "tip of the iceberg" so far, Cuomo said the problem is not limited to a few school districts on Long Island which were initially exposed for having put attorneys doing work for the districts on the public pension rolls.
Cuomo said the problem is also evident at BOCES school districts, "special" districts ... -
5/9/2008 8:56 AM
Simple Justice wrote:
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday that the Pension Scandal, which Turk tells me needs a really good name that doesn't include a "gate" on the end, will involved "hundreds and hundreds" of attorney.
According to Law.com,While his investigators have only exposed the "tip of the iceberg" so far, Cuomo said the problem is not limited to a few school districts on Long Island which were initially exposed for having put attorneys doing work for the districts on the public pension rolls.
Cuomo said the problem is also evident at BOCES school districts, "special" districts ...
Nicely done. ID the problem and suggest a solution that doesn't involve any kind of radical overhaul of the baby governments, since that wouldn't happen.
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Why didn't you suggest that the baby governments look on Avvo.com to find their lawyers?
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I like how you synthesize things. It creates synergies.
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The following is a comment left on the Newsday website. I thought you might get a kick out of it. It seems like one municipal lawyer is feeling the pinch of a shoe fitting too well. A fine job of making a lawyerly point:
Excellent job Newdsay. You just let all special district officers off the hook. It is nothing they have done wrong. They are the victims of incompetent attorneys who cannot measure up to Mr. Greenfield's standards.
It is clear that only Mr. Greenfield can measure up to his standards. That is the only way he can paint all municipal attorneys with the same broad brush.
With all the time he has spent promoting himself he cannot possibly have had the time to analyze the work of all the people he is smearing.
Would have expected more from an intelligent attorney than to take such an unfair shot at his profession.
But then again, I will not judge the quality of his legal work since I have not had the opportunity to see him in action.
Too bad he was unwilling to give the municipal bar the same benefit of the doubt.
Attorneys, especially criminal attorneys, should appreciate the danger of entities like Newsday that would prefer to strip any group of its right to counsel. That is really what this is about.
Municipal officers have a right to legal advice from the municipal lawyers who are assisting them. They operate in a complicated system of laws and rules and need guidance.
The vast majority of municipal lawyers in this state, even at the local level, are working hard and meeting the standards of their profession to assist their municipal clients.
When you get done killing all the lawyers the clients who want to break the law will continue to do so and some of those who do not want to will break it inadvertantly because you took away their legal advisors.
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You suggest an independent inspector general to monitor and audit the decisions and practices of attorneys for our special district baby governments. This might be a reasonable solution if the concept of all these baby governments on Long Island made any logical or rational sense. Why not address the root cause of the problem which in my humble opinion is that there are too many baby governments on Long Island. We have districts, special districts, school districts, water districts, garbage districts etc. each of which has its own infrastructure, its own legal needs, etc. The districts are full of political patronage and mainly exist in order to perpetuate their own existence. It is a ludicrous “old boy” network which creates an environment perfect for the types of fraud we see such as illegally calling contractors district employees in order to secure pensions and benefits.
Each and every one of the attorneys who participated in this fraud knew exactly what they were doing. The fact that “we’ve always done it this way” is no excuse. They should all be disbarred and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and be forced to make restitution. The “public” officials who participated in the fraud should be prosecuted as well.
What we need is a rational governmental structure organized in such a way as to maximize economies of scale and preserve citizen’s tax dollars. Our county is divided into towns with elected officials. Any governmental services that need to be provided should be under the auspices of the towns. I see no need to have any “special” districts. What we have on Long Island is a text book for fraud, waste and political patronage.
We don’t need another structure to govern the existing silly structure.
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I agree with much of what you say. There are many more problems than I've touched on.
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