Nassau County Surrogate Judge Margaret C. Reilly removed from office amid allegations of hostile work environment, according to Newsday report

Nassau County Surrogate Judge Margaret C. Reilly has been removed from office with 3½ months left on her term amid allegations she created a hostile workplace, according to a Newsday report.

Reilly’s last day on the bench in Surrogate Court was Sept. 8. However, she’s on the ballot for the Nov. 4 election, whenshe is running unopposed for a 10-year term in state Supreme Court. She has been endorsed by the Democratic, Republican and Conservative parties.

According to court personnel, Reilly has been reassigned to state Supreme Court in Mineola but has not been assigned a courtroom. 

Supreme Court Justice Rhonda E. Fischer will preside over Surrogate Court, which determines the outcomes of wills and estates for the county, until the end of the year. Her name appears on all forms outside the courtroom.

The Office of Court Administration declined to answer any questions regarding Reilly’s removal and would not say where she would be sitting until the end of term in December. The office would not say if it would explain the judge’s removal before Election Day.

Attempts to reach Reilly by phone were unsuccessful.

A dozen probate lawyers who were asked about practicing in front of Reilly, whose salary was $232,600 in 2024, had mixed reviews of her performance on the bench.

Probate attorney Timothy McNamara said he always had a positive experience in Reilly’s courtroom and found her professional. He described the complaints against her as "elementary school [expletive]."

"She reassigned someone’s parking spot, moved someone’s desk and made someone cry who had screwed up 15 times before," McNamara said.

Most lawyers, however, who would not go on the record, said they had seen signs of intemperance by Reilly and were frustrated with the pace of her court.

They said that after she took office in 2016, they could no longer use the court’s law library and even the most rudimentary paperwork in uncontested wills took months to get approval.

Attorney Steven Schlesinger, who had sparred with Reilly after she took office, called her "a nasty, mean-tempered jurist who had no business being on the bench in the first place."

Reilly removed Schlesinger, a former attorney for the Nassau County Democratic Party, from being the administrator of an $11 million family charity amid questions about disbursements.

In a 2017 court settlement related to the state attorney general's office inquiry into the matter, Newsday reported,  Schlesinger agreed to stop taking commissions from the foundation and pay back $150,000. He was forbidden to serve on a nonprofit or charity for five years.

Schlesinger said then through his attorney that the settlement reached with the attorney general made “no admission of wrongdoing” in the settlement, and that the $150,000 payment was for “reimbursement of certain administration expenses.”

Friday, Schlesinger's attorney, Jessica Baquet said: "Everything he was accused of was not borne out in the settlement agreement."

Schlesinger said that in late 2024, he filed paperwork in the surrogate’s office seeking letters of approval to appoint an executor to a $1 billion estate.

"They still haven't been issued when it should be a pro forma issue that takes a day," he said.

In the shake-up in Surrogate Court, Virginia Clavin-Higgins, the law clerk for Reilly, was transferred to Nassau County Matrimonial Court.  

Former Nassau County prosecutor Fred Klein lamented the state of judicial selection in the county, likening it to European royal orders of succession.

"There are some great judges in Nassau County," Klein said. "But there are others who don’t deserve to be on the bench."

There are 18 candidates running unopposed for judicial office in Nassau in the upcoming general election. All but one have been endorsed by both the Republican and Democratic  parties, according to the candidate slate published by the county Board of Elections.

"The voters don’t get to vote on judges anymore," Klein said. "If that’s democracy, it’s a surprise to me."

Newsday's Bahar Ostadan contributed to this story.

CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to clarify the terms of a 2017 court settlement.