After 50 Years In Practice, Elderly Attorney 'Abruptly Retires' In Disgrace By First Getting The Boot By NY Bar, Then Getting Pinched By Manhattan Feds For Allegedly Fleecing Clients' Trust Account Of Some $3 Million

In New York City, the New York Law Journal reports:

• A former lawyer was arrested by federal authorities [] for allegedly stealing millions from clients by keeping their money due them for personal injury settlements.
  
  Stuart Schlesinger, disbarred in September for misusing client funds, was charged in the Southern District with stealing some $3 million in settlement monies since 2008.
  
  Schlesinger, of Westhampton, practiced personal injury law for 50 years, with 30 of those years at the medical malpractice specialist firm of Julien & Schlesinger.
  
  The Appellate Division, First Department, accepted his resignation in September after Schlesinger, 75, a Fordham Law school graduate, said he could not defend himself against charges he misappropriated more than $600,000 he owed to 16 clients (NYLJ, Sept. 16).
  
  He was charged [] with one count of wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. §1343. He is accused of lying to eight clients in phone calls and in emails, telling them he had not received the money from their settlements. He allegedly used the money to pay both the expenses of the law firm and his own personal expenses.

Source: Former Lawyer Kept $3M in Settlements, U.S. Charges.

For the formal charges, which specifically detail each alleged ripoff, see USA v. Schlesinger.

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(1) Clients found to have been victimized by a theft by a New York attorney may be able to seek some reimbursement for being screwed over by turning to the The Lawyers’ Fund For Client Protection Of the State of New York, which manages and distribute money collected from annual dues paid by members of the state bar to members of the public who have sustained a financial loss caused by the dishonest conduct of a member of the bar acting as an attorney or a fiduciary.

See generally:

• N.Y. fund for cheated clients wants thieving lawyers disbarred, a July, 2015 Associated Press story on this Fund reporting that the Fund's executive director, among other things, is calling for prompt referral to the local district attorney when the disciplinary committee has uncontested evidence of theft by a lawyer injuring a client or an admission of culpability;
  
  When Lawyers Steal the Escrow, a June, 2005 New York Times story describing some cases of client reimbursements ("With real estate business surging and down-payment amounts rising with home prices, the temptation for a lawyer to filch money from a bulging escrow account and later repay it with other clients' money has never been greater, said lawyers who monitor the thefts."),
  
  Thieving Lawyers Draining Client Security Funds, a December, 1991 New York Times story that gives some-real life examples of how client security funds deal with claims and the pressures the administrators of those funds may feel when left insufficiently financed as a result of the misconduct of a handful of lawyer/scoundrels.

For similar "attorney ripoff reimbursement funds" that attempt to clean up the financial mess created by the dishonest conduct of lawyers licensed in other states and Canada, see:

• Directory Of Lawyers' Funds For Client Protection (now includes a listing for Canadian client protection funds, courtesy of the American Bar Association);
• Check the USA Client Protection Funds Map;
• Check the Canada Client Protection Funds Map.

Maps available courtesy of The National Client Protection Organization, Inc.