Cases: Just a little bit illegal

An interesting illegality issue has surfaced in a case from Brooklyn, New York.  Actually, it’s about the appropriate remedy in an illegality situation where an innocent party has received the benefit of the deal.

In Lewin v. The Law Offices of Godfrey G. Brown, lawyer Brown and client Lewin agreed to a $15,000 fee to represent Lewin’s relative on a criminal charge.  Brown took half the fee, $7.500, up front as a retainer.  There was no signed retainer agreement, however.  After Brown negotiated what sounds like a pretty good plea bargain, Lewin balked, and demanded disgorgement of the fee already paid.

New York law prohibits a lawyer from collecting fees in a case where the lawyer has failed to get a signed, written agreement.  Thus Brown could not recover the rest of his fee, according to Judge Arlene Bluth.  But the fees already paid were a different matter.  Bluth held that Brown had no obligation to return that part of the fee already paid when the representation had been completed.