Brooklyn court warns of mixing business with marriage, suspends attorney for wife’s wrongdoing
The Appellate Division, Second Department has suspended an upstate lawyer who wrongfully kept his name on the law business he shared with his wife even after leaving the practice.
Martin Posner and his wife Jane owned the real estate law firm Posner Posner & Associates, P.C. The Posners were responsible for safeguarding client mortgage funds by placing monies in authorized escrow accounts. In September 2008, $421,262.16 was deposited into one such account for a client’s real estate transaction. Jane was supposed to issue a check from the escrow account in the amount of $339,719.79 to pay off expenses related to a real estate transaction.
Jane drew the check against the account, but stopped payment on the check. The monies never reached their intended party and were never returned to the escrow account. Eventually a Grievance Committee began an investigation into Jane and the firm’s account transactions. She informed her husband and was subsequently convicted of grand larceny for the misappropriation of client funds.
Martin Posner was also brought up on disciplinary charges for breaching his fiduciary duty to the Posner firm’s clients. He argued that he was “no longer an active participant in the law firm,” at the time of his wife’s misdeeds. As such, the argument continued, he could not be held to have a duty to the firm’s clients.