Holocaust Victims' Settlement Lawyer Bill Saga, Part 2

For the past few years, lawyer and NYU professor Burt Neuborne has been battling to be paid for work on a $1.25 billion settlement from Swiss banks to Holocaust survivors. Even though a judge awarded Neuborne his fees last December, the conflict is far from over: Now Neuborne wants interest on his fees.

In 2005, Neuborne had submitted his time (8,000 hours!) on the case for payment, initially charging $5.7 million, which was later discounted to $4.1 million. Some survivors felt the figure was egregious so they refused to pay, and thus began a court battle, plus two outraged NY Times editorials (one in 2006 and one in 2007) - with Letter to the Editor responses from Neuborne and one of his colleagues. Neuborne argued:

" It was a grueling job that nobody else wanted, and that I have done faithfully and successfully for seven years. There has to be a special application of the rule that no good deed goes unpunished for someone to say that because I voluntarily gave up my fees for getting the settlement and that would be $10 million somehow I’m not allowed to be paid for seven years’ work in successfully carrying it out."

Last December, a court magistrate determined that Neuborne was owed $3.1 million. The Sun reports Neuborne has requested $299,419 in interest on the $3.1 million, noting that it took two years for him to be paid. A survivor in Queens Leo Richter told the Sun, "He's setting a precedent on greed," to which Neuborne said demanding interest was "standard" and commented, "Does Leo Richter not understand the concept of interest?"

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By Jen Chung in News on January 28, 2008 11:48 AM

Comments [rss]

JenChungsBaby

These people aren't looking for a handout, they're just trying to get back what was theirs. These Swiss banks knowingly took looted money from the nazis and refused to return it to the rightful owners after the war. They should be ashamed that it came down to this 60 years later -- they should have been trying to return this money decades ago but instead tried to keep it for themselves.

There are so many pockets to fill? Boo hoo! Maybe Germany shouldn't have victimized tens of millions of people. Then there'd be fewer pockets to fill.

And nobody's pocket is getting filled. My neighbor gets a few hundred bucks a month from Germany. In exchange, they killed over 50 members of her family, stole everything her family owned including houses and real estate, threw her in a concentration camp, gang-raped her and forced her to be a slave laborer. So was it worth it? The only momento she has of her entire childhood are a couple of candlesticks that her mother buried in their backyard and which she dug up decades after the war -- with the permission of the family that's now living in the house the Nazis evicted them from.

As for this Swiss bank settlement, she may eventually get $7500 out of it. My wife helped her fill out the paperwork. Maybe she'll get the money and maybe she won't, we don't know. I agree though that the lawyers are scoundrels. I also agree that anyone who was victimized by the Nazis deserves payback. The organization that distributes German reparations actually sends funds to many non-Jews who helped Jews during the war, but that doesn't cover everyone.

You sound like typical eurotrash. Go fuck yourself.

nik13

Oh, chill. Has someone slipped some espresso into you soy latte organic decaf? Or was it sugar instead of splenda that set you off JCB?

War has ended 60 years ago. Why do they sue only now? Do they sue out their own volition, or more likely have greedy lawyers put seniors up for it? Ask your neighbors about those details. (It appears, old folks got nothing, despite judgments, but scoundrel wants to be paid regardless)

Holocaust reparations are nothing but enormous racket. Germany alone had paid about 70-80B. But there are still so many pockets to fill, so some play on collective German/Swiss guilt to get a few additional pieces of silver.

Then what about Gypsies or homosexuals who were also singled out for death by Nazis? Never heard of a single lawsuit on their behalf. At least not to the tune of tens of billions.

JenChungsBaby

This is the first time I've ever said this on Gothamist, but:

FUCK YOU, nik13

Do you want to say that to the face of the 94-year-old woman who lives downstairs from me who still has the tattoo on her arm that the nazis gave her before they gangraped her?

Fuck you.

And if the survivors did bill someone for 50 years of interest, what's wrong with that? It was their money that was looted by the Nazis and then kept/stolen by those Swiss banks. Are you saying that victims of genocide should rightly forfeit all their worldy belongings? The Jews I know who were in the camps and survived came out with NOTHING. Whatever small amount they may receive from Germany or from this Swiss bank deal is less than a pittance.

You prick.

freddyhere

I understand Mr.Dershowitz couldn't be reached for comment...

nik13

As it seems only rich Jews survived WW2, they should have no problem paying him both principal & interest, however high.

I'm sure survivors themselves billed Swiss banks for 50 years of accrued interest. So let them pay (not that he deserves it, but they all are cut from same cloth).

Snoopy

Is he Jewish? The saga continues.

How about the lawyer fees for fighting the payment dispute? Is there no justice in this world?

JenChungsBaby

So was he billing his clerks at $700/hour or $500/hour?

smh

Do you guys have any idea how billable hours work in the legal profession????

He obviously did not do all that work himself. He hired other lawyers/law clerks to work for him and complete the work. He basically just managed the team and billed the client for all the hours worked. This is how law offices are run.

Duh.

JenChungsBaby

Whether or not he's a good lawyer, what a crock of shit liar this Neuborne is. 8000 hours?!?!?! Even if he worked 50 hours a week on just this case, 52 weeks a year, he'd have to work for over three years straight without a break to reach 8000 hours. Plus, he holds down a day job at NYU. The Times editorial points out that at least once he billed over 30 hours in one day! Maybe he lives in an alternate universe.

Keep in mind that a lot of those hours were doubtless spent lounging around five-star hotels in Geneva, or wherever the negotiations were being held. And never mind the fact that he represented himself originally as taking the case pro bono...