Monday, March 29, 2010

Private NYC Criminal Defense Attorneys Get Defensive About Pay

Who you callin' a fat cat?

Threatened by proposed city cost cutting, 1,100 private attorneys who handle criminal cases involving indigent defendants insist they're a bargain compared with the nonprofits they fear are trying to move in on their turf.

The nonprofit Legal Aid Society had three lawyers making more than $170,000 a year; New York County Defenders has three making $150,000; and the top two at Brooklyn Defender Services made $162,000 and $137,000, 2008 tax records show.

The private lawyers, who get $75 an hour for felony cases through the city-funded 18-B program, can make up to $200,000 but have to shell out for overhead expenses.

"We handle the most complicated, labor-intensive cases, which the not-for-profits are less equipped to handle," said 18-B lawyer Bryan Konoski, who earns $190,000.

The nonprofits say it's nonsense to compare 18-B earners to execs like Legal Aid's Steven Banks, who oversees 1,450 staffers for about $200,000 a year.

Banks, "who typically works an 85-hour week and takes hardly any vacation, actually makes substantially less per hour," said Legal Aid spokeswoman Pat Bath.


Source: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/private_att_ys_play_defen_jQab42c8YdunV4o5stCjTK#ixzz0ja3HEXZS Legal

1 comment:

  1. Choosing the finest criminial attorney is quite necessary to handle a criminal case. Criminal cases are absolutely tough, when you are not hirning the ideal lawyer one features a possibility of blasting off a case. Even so getting an excellent legal professional or to obtain the details of criminal attorneys close to your neighbourhood is rather overwhelming. One such online directory website where you can able to obtain the particulars of criminal law corporations is Criminal Attorneys.com.

    ReplyDelete