Skelos firm's clients also deal with state

The law firm that employs Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos represents businesses that have more than $1.75 billion in contracts with state agencies and public authorities, according to a review of state records.

The disclosure of such clients has become a central struggle in negotiations over a new ethics law, with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo pressing for naming most clients of a lawmaker's firm or business. Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) back more limited disclosures, said two state officials with knowledge of the discussions.

Considered part-time employees under the state constitution, most legislators have outside jobs and have long resisted disclosing much about them. But pressure to reveal their income sources has grown after scandals involving their business interests, including former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno's conviction on corruption charges.

Connected law firm

Among the clients of Ruskin Moscou Faltischek P.C. - the Uniondale law firm where Skelos is "of counsel" - are businesses tightly regulated by state government, including energy providers, banks, hospitals and nursing homes, developers, pharmacies and doctors. Skelos' staff said the law firm pays him between $100,000 and $250,000 a year.

Skelos declined to be interviewed. In a statement, his spokesman, Scott Reif, said: "There is absolutely no conflict of interest related to the senator's legal work and his position as majority leader. Senator Skelos supports stronger ethics laws, including greater transparency and disclosure, and was the first legislative leader to make public his unredacted financial disclosure form. . . . We're confident that we'll soon reach an agreement on a consensus ethics bill."

State ethics law bans legislators from accepting jobs that come "in substantial conflict with" or "will impair his independence of judgment in the exercise of his official duties." But lawmakers do not have to publicly disclose outside clients or those of their employer.

Senate Democrats have blamed Skelos for holding up ethics changes, with Senate Minority Leader John Sampson (D-Brooklyn) saying Skelos was "backing away" from a disclosure pledge to Edward I. Koch's group, New York Uprising.

They introduced a bill last week requiring lawmakers to name their own clients and, if they are partners or shareholders, to reveal business clients who paid the firm $5,000 or more. That would likely apply to Sampson in his partnership at a Manhattan law firm. But Sampson - like Skelos and Silver - is also "of counsel" for another firm, Belluck & Fox, where it's not clear the bill would apply.

The client list

A Newsday review of court records, the Ruskin Moscou Faltischek website and the state comptroller's database of government contracts uncovered the following clients with state business, among others:

Caithness Long Island Llc, which operates a natural gas plant in Yaphank, has five contracts worth more than $1.6 billion with the Long Island Power Authority.

Tritec, an East Setauket developer, has six lease agreements with the state worth $55 million.

Hess, the petroleum company, has a $13.8-million contract to supply SUNY with natural gas.

In a statement, Ruskin Moscou's managing partner, Mark Mulholland, said the firm did not help its clients obtain any of the contracts identified by Newsday. Mulholland would not specify the firm's policy against conflicts of interest, nor would he say how long Skelos worked there or his role.

Some of Ruskin Moscou's legal clients also employ the firm's separate lobbying arm, Empire Government Strategies, which must disclose its clients and activities.

For example, Caithness Long Island Llc, a local subsidiary of the company that operates the 350-megawatt plant in Yaphank, has paid Empire $102,500 since 2007 to lobby Suffolk, state and LIPA officials on "energy-related issues," state records show.

Skelos has said he does not talk to Empire's lobbyists.

Ruskin Moscou Faltischek is a large commercial law firm on Long Island. Its major areas of practice include health care law, energy, bankruptcy, corporate restructuring and a burgeoning business of suing counties and towns to reduce commercial real estate tax assessments.

Clients deny conflict

The clients with state contracts who responded to Newsday inquiries said they all earned their agreements with the state through competitive bidding and did not ask for or receive help from Skelos. "Dean's a friend, but I don't go to him for state contracts at all. He's a highly ethical person," said John Cameron, chairman of the Long Island Regional Planning Council, whose engineering firm has $3.15 million in state contracts and has been a Ruskin Moscou client for 20 years.

Skelos does have substantial power over one area in which Ruskin Moscou clients have a direct interest: Medicaid reimbursements set by the legislature. The firm's health care practice is staffed by 10 attorneys.

Skelos said last week that he supported "extensive disclosure" of clients who have business before the state or pose a conflict with legislators. But it was unclear if he meant clients he was directly responsible for, or those of the entire firm.

"I think the end product is going to be more disclosure," Skelos said, at a Crain's Breakfast in Manhattan recently. He also said: "The issue really here is, should lawyers have to disclose every single client within their law firm. I don't believe so."

Silver, who is of counsel to Manhattan personal injury firm Weitz & Luxenberg, told Newsday in a statement he supports disclosing clients with state business but did not say if he meant his own or those of his entire firm. Of-counsel attorneys generally are not firm partners, often are hired for name recognition and may not handle many clients.

'Appearance' a concern

Stephen Gillers, a professor at New York University School of Law who studies legal ethics, said Ruskin Moscou's clients present "an appearance of a conflict of interest" for Skelos.

"The public looking at this cannot be fully confident that his legislative decisions are truly independent," Gillers said. "They may be. He could say, 'I'd vote the same way no matter what.' But we can't know for sure."

If New York required disclosure of a firm's clients, its rules would be among the strictest in the nation, said Lawrence Norden, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. Only Alaska has such a law.

The New York State Bar Association and good-government groups have thrown their support behind disclosing most clients of a lawmaker's firm. They said exceptions should be made only for clients involved in family court, divorces and those under criminal investigation.

"We really felt is was important to make a strong statement that the public ought to know," said Stephen Younger, state bar association president. "And disclosure of a firm's clients is the best way to do that."

A glance at the contracts

Ten clients of Sen. Dean Skelos' law firm, Ruskin Moscou Faltischek, have state contracts or leases worth a total of around $1.75 billion:

Caithness Long Island, operates natural gas plant. $1.68 billion (5 contracts)

Hess, a petroleum firm. $13.8 million (1 contract)

Tritec, an East Setauket real estate firm. $55.3 million (6 leases)

Cameron Engineering, Woodbury. $3.15 million (4 contracts)

Commander Enterprises Centereach, a real estate company. $3.1 million (1 lease)

Wells Fargo. $1.2 million (12 contracts)

AvalonBay Communities, a Virginia real estate firm. $259,500 (1 land deal)

Leadership Training Institute, a Hempstead social services company. $224,000 (1 contract)

TD Bank. $106,999 (2 contracts)

Jetro, a Queens food wholesaler. $44,566 (1 contract)

SOURCE: NYS comptroller's office