Photo: Eaglesky/Shutterstock.com
A veteran New York lawyer has resigned from law practice and been disbarred after admitting that he “cannot successfully defend himself” against allegations that he misappropriated tens of thousands of dollars in client monies he'd held in escrow.
Steven D. Hamburg, who according to his Avvo listing and other online information has had offices in Manhattan and Great Neck, was suspended from law practice last June and was under investigation by the First Department’s Attorney Grievance Committee when he asked the Appellate Division, First Department to accept his resignation and strike his name from the rolls of attorneys.
A First Department panel Tuesday accepted his resignation and disbarred him while ordering, in accordance with his own consent, that he make restitution totaling $72,000 to five “individuals” and that he reimburse another $72,000 to the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection.
The unanimous panel’s decision also notes—again in accordance with Hamburg’s agreement—that he remain subject to any future grievance committee applications made to any Appellate Division department for an order mandating he pay further restitution or make more reimbursement to the client-protection fund.
According to an Appellate Division, Second Department decision issued last June suspending Hamburg—which came after the Tenth Judicial District Grievance Committee and Hamburg jointly moved for his 18-month suspension—he had misappropriated funds entrusted to him in three real-estate transactions.
In one Jamaica, Queens, transaction, for instance, the Second Department panel wrote that Hamburg "admits that the balance in the trust account was less than $31,923.37, the amount that he was required to maintain, on multiple dates between November 9, 2011, and September 30, 2016, reaching a low of $4.09 during that period.”
In the First Department panel’s decision issued Tuesday, it was not made clear exactly what lawyering may have led to the need to make restitution to each individual named as being owed money. And the “individuals,” as they were referred to by the panel, did not appear to have the same names as clients pointed to in the Second Department’s suspension decision.
In the First Department opinion, the panel, composed of Justices John Sweeny, Judith Gische, Marcy Kahn, Jeffrey Oing and Anil Singh, wrote that Hamburg “acknowledges in an affidavit that he is currently the subject of an investigation by the Committee for the First Judicial Department involving allegations that include at least the following acts of professional misconduct: ‘Willful misappropriation of escrow funds without permission or authority including willful misappropriation of $47,000 belonging to Juthatip Thirakasapan and Wattanna Chavavit held by me as an escrow agent in connection with their real estate transaction.’"
The First Department panel also wrote that Hamburg had advised that he was also admitted to practice in the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and that he’d been admitted to the state bar in 1986. Moreover, the panel noted that the First Department grievance committee supported Hamburg’s motion to resign and have his name stricken from the rolls of attorneys.
According to the Avvo and other online information, it appears that Hamburg has practiced various areas of law, including real estate and bankruptcy.
The panel ordered that his name should stricken from the attorney rolls nunc pro tunc to Sept. 12, 2018, his affidavit date.
A lawyer for Hamburg, Benjamin Robert Katz in White Plains, could not be immediately reached for comment on Tuesday evening.