Michael Sendlenski appointed East Hampton Town Attorney

Michael Sendlenski, who has been in the news frequently in recent months for handling new laws and court cases stemming from problems with disruptive young summertime visitors to Montauk, has been appointed East Hampton Town Attorney.

The Southampton Village resident was East Hampton’s assistant town attorney and replaces Elizabeth Vail, who left the town attorney position in December. Vail held the town attorney’s job for two years and left at the end of her two-year appointment last month to join the Uniondale—based law firm Farrell Fritz.

Sendlenski was an assistant town attorney in Southampton Town for seven years before becoming East Hampton’s assistant town attorney in 2013, and was sworn in to his new $104,000 a year town attorney post on Jan. 5 during the town board’s annual organizational meeting.

Since the problems in Montauk boiled over last summer, Sendlenski has prosecuted cases in East Hampton Town Justice Court involving overcrowding of share houses and illegal rentals. He also wrote the new rental registry law that requires property owners not living on the rental premises to file certain information with the town including the terms of a lease and the number of tenants.

“I really look forward to working with the town board,” Sendlenski, 42, said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “There is a lot of experience in the town attorney’s office and I look forward to continue to work on code enforcement and compliance and the quality of life in East Hampton.”

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said Sendlenski’s experience makes him very well-suited for his new town attorney job.

“Mike has been an experienced municipal attorney who worked for Southampton Town for a number of years and was the assistant attorney in our town for two years,” Cantwell said. “He has done a great job of handling local court matters, Supreme Court matters and municipal advice and the Legislature.”