Law firm co-founder takes the stand at Silver’s retrial

The founders of the Manhattan law firm that paid then-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver more than $3 million for referring cancer patients to the firm for potential lawsuits said Wednesday they never expected Silver to use his legislative job to secure the referrals.

Perry Weitz and Arthur M. Luxenberg of the personal injury firm Weitz & Luxenberg said they did not anticipate that Silver would use his position as one of the most powerful individuals in state government to aid his work for the firm. They said they didn’t require him to work at all.

Weitz said Silver, 74, was hired in 2002 to bring “prestige” to Weitz & Luxenberg as Assembly speaker. However, after his indictment on federal corruption charges in 2015, Silver lost both the speakership and the law firm job.

“What were your expectations about Sheldon Silver using his position to bring cases to the firm?” federal prosecutor Tatiana Martins asked Weitz on the third day of Silver’s retrial.

“None,” Weitz responded. “Basically, we were giving Shelly an office. We didn’t expect him to do work. . . . We didn’t hire him to bring in cases.”

The law firm’s founders also said it stopped filing lawsuits against New York State and its agencies once Silver had been hired to avoid conflicts of interest with Silver’s job as Assembly chief.

Silver’s hiring “was more of a problem than a help,” Weitz said. “We couldn’t apply for certain types of cases because we didn’t want a conflict. We never wanted to be tainted.”

Silver was “of counsel” to Weitz & Luxenberg, earning a salary of $120,000 per year. He has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Later Wednesday, Weitz, under questioning by one of Silver’s attorneys, said the politician did work on personal injury cases for the firm and met with clients suffering from mesothelioma, a deadly cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.

The testimony of the law firm’s founders, along with that of six other witnesses on Wednesday, was focused on federal charges that Silver improperly received more than $3 million from legal settlements and verdicts won by Weitz & Luxenberg on behalf of mesothelioma patients that Silver had referred to the firm.

The patients came to Silver from Dr. Robert Taub, a then-Columbia University physician, who in turn received $500,000 in state research grants at Silver’s direction in a quid pro quo scheme, according to the federal indictment.

The law firm’s founders said Wednesday they didn’t know that Silver allegedly steered state grants to Taub’s research center or allegedly helped Taub’s children to secure jobs.

Taub’s nurse Mary Hesdorffer testified that she thought “it was slimy” when she found out that Taub was referring patients to law firms.

“I told him how they were going to take him out in handcuffs,” she testified. “He blew me off saying, he needed the money for research.”

Taub, 82, testified against Silver earlier this week under an agreement to avoid federal prosecution for lying to federal agents.

The retrial, which began Monday, is a do-over of Silver’s corruption trial in 2015 and conviction in 2016. The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted Silver’s appeal request in 2017 but said there were grounds for another trial.

The appeals court said Judge Valerie E. Caproni’s instructions to jurors in 2015 did not comply with a later U.S. Supreme Court decision that narrowed the acts required to convict public officials in a quid pro quo bribery scheme to formal exercises of government power, not just meetings or telephone calls.

Silver, a Democrat from lower Manhattan, has been accused of exploiting his government position to extort nearly $4 million in bribes over about 10 years. He allegedly invested the money, making an additional $1 million, according to the indictment.

Besides the alleged scheme involving cancer patients and Taub, prosecutors said Silver improperly profited from tax work performed by a second law firm in Manhattan.

Two real estate developers hired the law firm to represent them in tax challenge cases in return for Silver allegedly backing the renewal of state tax incentives for developers of large housing projects that include affordable units, according to federal charges. One of the developers is mega-landlord Glenwood Management.

Later Wednesday, the prosecution questioned now-retired State Supreme Court Justice Martin Schoenfeld about the unpaid summer internship he gave to Taub’s daughter, Aimee Taub Bandler.

Schoenfeld said a Silver aide asked that he “consider” Taub’s daughter for the internship. Silver’s chief of staff then faxed the law school student’s resume to Schoenfeld. The justice and Silver are neighbors.

Schoenfeld said Taub’s daughter did “excellent” work. He added that only once before had Silver asked him to consider someone for a job: Silver’s mother-in-law was hired to be Schoenfeld’s secretary.

Under cross examination by one of Silver’s lawyers, Schoenfeld said that Taub’s daughter won the internship on merit.

“You didn’t speak to Mr. Silver about Mrs. Blander?” asked Silver attorney Rebecca Naeder.

“No, I did not,” Schoenfeld said.

By James T. Madore

james.madore@newsday.comJamesTMadore

James T. Madore writes about Long Island business news including the economy, development, and the relationship between government and business. He previously served as Albany bureau chief.