NIFA legal fees still a mystery

The Nassau Interim Finance Authority has yet to disclose what it is paying its outside legal counsel Judith Kaye, the state’s former top judge, and her Manhattan law firm Skadden Arps for legal advice concerning the watchdog agency’s takeover of Nassau’s finances.

Newsday has filed a Freedom of Information request for her rates but has yet to receive the information.

NIFA chairman Ronald Stack said at the time Kaye was hired, when asked how much NIFA was paying,  "It's a complicated fee schedule, hourly rates plus caps, all within state guidelines."

County Executive Edward Mangano’s spokesman Brian Nevin contends that NIFA hired Kaye and the outside accounting firm Grant Thornton as “mercenaries to try and seize control of Nassau's government.”

Meanwhile Mangano has yet to disclose the fees he’s paying his former law firm Rivkin Radler and partner william Savino, to represent him against NIFA.