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COURT OF APPEALS IN BRIEF City Attorney Sanctioned one of our lawyers engaged in Judges to Hear Debate For Excessive Objections sanctionable conduct.” —Andrew Denney A New York City Law Depart- Over Medically Assisted ment attorney has been sanc- NYC Tax Boutique Opens tioned for using heavy-handed Office in Washington, DC objections while deposing a Suicide of the Dying police officer, at times prevent- Two tax experts with high-pro- ing the plaintiff’s attorney from file government and private getting his questions answered. practice experience have joined Last year’s First Department rul- AFFER Objections from assistant New York boutique Kostelanetz LT ing held that New York’s application A BY JOEL STASHENKO corporation counsel Amatullah & Fink and will launch the firm’s of criminal penalties to anyone who ARY ALBANY Booth—more than 600 total— new Washington, D.C., office. assists a suicide does not violate appeared on 84 percent of the “We hope to grow,” said part- AP / M NEW YorK’S highest court will due process or equal protection transcript of the eight-hour ner Caroline Ciraolo, who came hear arguments this month over rights under the U.S. Constitution. deposition of New York City to Kostelanetz & Fink this month Department of Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte whether state statutes and its The ruling was largely based on a Police Officer John Essig, East- after leading the U.S. Depart- constitution allow physicians to 1997 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, ern District Magistrate Judge ment of Justice’s Tax Division legally prescribe medications to Vacco v. Quill, 521 U.S. 793, which Cheryl Pollak wrote Friday in during the final two years of the help terminally ill, mentally com- expressly upheld the constitutional- her order imposing sanctions Obama administration. Ciraolo With Ponte’s Exit, Advocates Say petent people end their own lives. ity of New York’s laws against pro- on Booth. had earlier chaired the tax con- The action, Myers v. Schneider- viding assistance to others’ suicides. Essig is part of a group of troversy and litigation group at Rikers Reforms Must Continue man, 77, is being brought by three The plaintiffs are arguing that defendants, which includes New Baltimore’s Rosenberg Martin individuals who say they mayneed times have changed since the Vac- York City, whom plaintiff Hec- Greenberg. end-of-life medical assistance, as co decision, and so have society’s tor Cordero alleges wrongfully Joining Ciraolo in the firm’s Ponte came under fire after the well as five physicians and End of attitudes toward allowing termi- arrested him in 2014 for charges new D.C. office is Jay Nanavati, a BY REBECCA BAKER city’s Department of Investigation Life Choices New York. The group nally ill people avoid unnecessary that were eventually dropped. former assistant chief of the Tax released a report last month saying is the New York affiliate of the End suffering at the ends of their lives. During a September 2016 Division’s Criminal Enforcement WHOEVER replaces Joseph Ponte he spent 90 days out of state last of Life Liberty Project, a Seattle, “since that ruling (Vacco), the deposition in Cordero’s subse- Section who spent the past five as the head of New York City’s jail year in his department SUV. About Washington-based organization Supreme Court has recognized that quent civil rights suit, Booth years as a partner at Baker & system should be committed to a third of those days away were that advocates for palliative care, evolving societal views influence told Essig at least 20 times not to Hostetler. closing the troubled Rikers Island during the workweek. pain management and aid in dying the content of fundamental rights,” answer questions from Gabriel “We are starting a new office jail complex and reducing violence City officials generally aren’t for the terminally ill. the plaintiffs argue in their brief. Harvis, Cordero’s attorney and sort of from scratch, but with there until it does, criminal justice allowed to use their taxpayer- The Court of Appeals has set The plaintiffs also contend that a name partner at Harvis & Fett. the support of existing firm,” advocates say. funded vehicles for personal trips aside 30 minutes on May 30 to the Court of Appeals should find Courts in the U.S. Court of Nanavati said. “As long as Rikers exists, we out of the region, the report said. hear oral arguments in the case that the anti-assisted suicide laws Appeals for the Second Circuit The office will be Kostelan- absolutely have to have leader- Ponte, who was appointed commis- in Albany. violate the due process and equal courts have declined to impose etz & Fink’s first outpost out- ship and commitment to ending sioner in 2014, promised to repay According to a survey in from protection rights that New York’s sanctions for voluminous or side New York. The 60-year-old so much of the inhumanity and the the city. the National Conference of State state constitution affords citizens unwarranted objections, Pollak firm, which has 22-lawyers and brutality,” said Jonathan Lippman, The report also found other Legislatures in early May, five of New York, separately from the noted. But she said Booth failed specializes in tax matters, white- who chaired the commission that officials at the agency used their states have legalized a role for phy- U.S. Supreme Court’s analysis of to limit her objections to “objec- collar defense and litigation, studied conditions at Rikers and vehicles for trips to Cape Cod, the sicians to aid in patient suicides the equal protection and due pro- tion as to form” and threatened had always sought to open a recommended its closure. “You Hamptons and other destinations. -- Oregon, Colorado, Washington, cess clauses under the U.S. consti- to leave the deposition several D.C. branch and jumped at need strong management. There A subsequent report accused California and Vermont -- either tution in the Vacco case. times, which unnecessarily the chance to hire Ciraolo and is no excuse in any jail facility to corrections officials of using inter- through voter-approved referen- “New York has long recognized lengthened the proceedings. Nanavati, said managing partner have the kinds of things go on that nal affairs officers to eavesdrop on dums or state laws. In addition, a a broad fundamental right to self- “The witness comes to the Bryan Skarlatos. have gone on at Rikers.” conversations between Depart- court ruling protects Montana phy- determination with respect to one’s deposition to testify, not to Ciraolo “knocked it out of Ponte announced his retirement ment of Investigation investigators sicians who assist dying patients body and to control the course indulge in a parody of Charlie the park,” at the Justice Depart- Friday as commissioner of the and inmate informants at the jail. from prosecution. of one’s medical treatment,” the McCarthy, with lawyers coach- ment, Skarlatos said, citing the Department of Correction, follow- Violence, mismanagement and Two lower courts have ruled plaintiffs argued. “This due pro- ing or bending the witness’s Tax Division’s Swiss Bank Pro- ing reports of ongoing violence at corruption have been the subject against the plaintiffs, an Appellate cess right encompasses a patient’s words to mold a legally con- gram, which held 80 Swiss finan- Rikers—despite efforts to improve of intense scrutiny by the media Division, First Department, panel right to choose aid-in-dying, just venient record,” Pollak said, cial institutions accountable for conditions there— and weeks and federal prosecutors in recent (NYLJ, May 4, 2016) and acting as it encompasses a patient’s quoting the Southern District’s facilitating tax evasion by U.S. of criticism for alleged ethical years, and has cost the city millions Manhattan Supreme Court Justice right to choose other end-of-life 2011 holding in Abu Dhabi Com- accountholders. The agency lapses. of dollars to settle civil » Page 2 Joan Kenney (NYLJ, Oct. 21, 2015). options.” » Page 2 mercial Bank v. Morgan Stanley, also cracked down on unpaid 08-cv-750. payroll taxes under Ciraolo’s The judge ordered Booth to tenure, he said. pay for the videotaped deposi- For Ciraolo, some resettle- tion. “The costs are not unsub- ment issues remain with her stantial,” Harvis said, though he return to private practice. Her US Attorneys, Defense Bar Criticize Sessions Directive to Prosecutors could not provide an exact figure. new firm still hasn’t secured The Law Department will office space in the capital, and “This Attorney General has or assistant attorney general. The “review the decision and she referred to the government BY TOM MCPARLAND taken away the discretion of pro- deputy attorney general will be respond accordingly,” spokes- as “we” before catching herself. fessional prosecutors to determine tasked with overseeing and clari- man Nicholas Paolucci said. “We “It’s hard to break,” she said FORMER U.S. attorneys and crimi- what sentence serves justice in any fying the new policy, according to take quite seriously any finding about the habit. nal defense lawyers on Friday criti- given case,” Barry J. Pollack, presi- the document. that calls into question whether —Miriam Rozen cized a new Department of Justice dent of the National Association The most serious offenses, Ses- directive instructing federal pros- of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said sions said, are those that carry Verbal ‘Agreement’ Ruled ecutors to pursue the most serious in a statement. “Instead, prosecu- the “most substantial” guideline Bradley Arant Partner Not to Be a Binding Contract charges that they can prove.