Mark Lesko and Anthony LaPinta partner up

Daily Point

New firm to watch

Three prominent Long Island lawyers with deep experience in federal courts and Democratic politics are planning to shake up the regional law firm hierarchy with a new boutique litigation firm.

Mark Lesko, a veteran federal prosecutor who served more than three years as Brookhaven Town supervisor and rose to the top ranks of the Justice Department, is teaming up with prominent criminal defense attorney Anthony LaPinta, best known for representing star cooperating witness restaurateur Harendra Singh in the bribery case against former Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano. LaPinta is also the newest board member for the Long Island Power Authority, currently mired in its own controversy.

The third partner is James Miskiewicz, a longtime colleague of Lesko in the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District who most recently spent eight years as in-house attorney at LIPA. Lesko and Miskiewicz both have left the law firm of Greenberg Traurig.

Lesko told The Point that the new firm is starting with seven attorneys with offices in Hauppauge and Mineola. "The plan is to grow this into a significant Long Island-based firm with plans to expand in the next several months. We see a real market opportunity here." After leading Brookhaven for parts of three terms, Lesko was executive director of Accelerate Long Island, an investment firm funding local startups, and vice president of economic development at Hofstra University. He said he and LaPinta, a prominent defense attorney for more than three decades, became convinced there was a need for a mid-level regional firm. "Between us we have two degrees of separation from anyone on Long Island," said Lesko.

Ironically, the firm would be disqualified from any lawsuits stemming from the fiasco at LIPA, the current hotbed of controversy that has everyone in the place lawyering up because of a state inspector general investigation into the board’s messy rejection of the professional staff’s contract recommendation of Quanta Services over current operator PSEG. LaPinta, appointed to the LIPA board by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to replace PSEG critic Drew Biondo, is a former vice-chair of the Suffolk County Democratic Party. He abstained from LIPA’s stunning April vote, torpedoing Quanta, because of his party affiliation — LIPA rules require that no trustee could hold such a position.

LaPinta said he advocated for the board to hire counsel "to help us navigate this complicated and highly sensitive process moving forward." Miskiewicz, considered the architect of last year’s abandoned plan to transform LIPA into a fully public owned and operated utility, also would have conflicts.

Lesko, former acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District at the end of the Trump administration who rose to become acting deputy attorney general of the National Security Division in the early days of the Biden administration, doesn’t see the firm’s connection to Democrats as limiting. Unlike big law firms that have been reluctant to take on the Trump administration for fear of retribution, he said, "We would welcome a controversial case against the administration."

— Rita Ciolli rita.ciolli@newsday.com

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