Real Estate Attorney Disbarred; He Fee-Split with Non-Lawyers in Personal Injury Cases

Matter of Keith G. Rubenstein

First Dept.
Admitted to Bar: 1991

Discipline imposed: Disbarred

On May 29, 2002 Rubinstein signed an employment agreement with Gem & R Management Corp., owned by a non-attorney. He agreed to be a front for Gem & R’s personal injury practice and acted as such from May 2002 through December 2004. Gem & R. was owned by one Simon Garber, the owner of several hundred taxi medallions.

Gem & R had complete authority to accept or reject clients and to set legal fees, controlled the files and checkbooks, and had paralegals that did all the legal work.

Rubinstein also filed approximately 180 false retainer statements with the N.Y.S. Office of Court Administration indicating "self" as the source of case referral, when all his clients had come from Gem & R.

Rubenstein admitted that it was even possible that he was the attorney of record on personal injury cases of which he was unaware; but that he had expanded from real estate into personal injury when his law practice was not going well and he was in the midst of a divorce

The Appellate Division held:  Even though no clients were harmed, he is guilty of serious professional misconduct, including allowing non-attorneys to exercise control over his law practice, maintaining escrow funds in a non-escrow account, and falsely holding himself out as partner with another attorney who has since been disbarred. Noting Rubinstein’s, "Total abdication of control over his practice to non-attorneys," the Court disbarred him.

Commentary:  Don’t cry for this ex-attorney: he’s a principal of real estate firm Somerset Partners, and all indications are that he’s very wealthy now, having outbid Madonna for a $35 million Upper East Side townhouse that he is planning to gut, renovate and then live in. For more on the ills of cavorting with non-lawyers on personal injury lawsuits see my free book, Good Lawyers Don’t Call You First.

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)