The following e-filed documents, listed by NYSCEF document number (Motion 001) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 were read on this motion to/for APPOINT – FIDUCIARY.
Attorney Carolyn Pawlik petitions pursuant to 22 NYCRR 1240.21 and Rule 1.15 of the Rules of Professional Conduct (22 NYCRR 1200.0, rule 1.15) to be appointed as the attorney for Ilasz & Associates, P.C., doing business as Ilasz & Associates (the Ilasz firm), in order to protect the interest of clients of the Ilasz firm who have pending actions in New York. No person or entity opposes the petition. The petition is granted.
On September 28, 2023, Livius M. Ilasz, who was the sole principal and owner of the Ilasz firm, and the only attorney directly employed by Ilasz firm, died intestate and without a succession plan. According to Pawlik, there are presently at least 70 cases pending in New York and New Jersey in which the Ilasz firm is serving as counsel of record that need to be safeguarded, and there is no other competent attorney willing and able to be appointed as the attorney of the Ilasz firm. Pawlik asserted that, in or around 2017, she began working for the Ilasz firm as a legal clerk, but that, after being admitted to the New Jersey bar in 2018, she began working for the Ilasz firm in an “of counsel” capacity. The petitioner was admitted to the New York bar in 2020. According to the petitioner, she has been of counsel to the Ilasz firm for the past seven years, and is well versed in the inner workings of the firm, its business model, and its clients. As she described it, the bulk of the Ilasz firm’s clientele speaks Polish, and the petitioner herself speaks and writes fluently in Polish. Yinan Ilasz, who is the deceased attorney’s widow, joins in Pawlik’s application, and explained the circumstances of her husband’s death.
22 NYCRR 1240.21 provides that,
“[w]hen an attorney is . . . incapacitated from practicing law pursuant to these Rules, or when the Court determines that an attorney is otherwise unable to protect the interests of his or her clients and has thereby placed clients’ interests at substantial risk, the court may enter an order, upon such notice as it shall direct, appointing one or more attorneys to take possession of the attorney’s files, examine the files, advise the clients to secure another attorney or take any other action necessary to protect the clients’ interests. An application for such an order shall be by motion, with notice to the committee, and shall include an affidavit setting forth the relationship, if any, as between the moving party, the attorney to be appointed and the . . . incapacitated attorney.”
Rule 1.15(g) of the Rules of Professional Conduct provide, in relevant part, that,
“(1) Upon the death of a lawyer who was the sole signatory on an attorney trust, escrow or special account, an application may be made to the Supreme Court for an order designating a successor signatory for such trust, escrow or special account, who shall be a member of the bar in good standing and admitted to the practice of law in New York State.(2) An application to designate a successor signatory shall be made to the Supreme Court in the judicial district in which the deceased lawyer maintained an office for the practice of law. The application may be made by … a lawyer who was affiliated with the deceased lawyer in the practice of law … No lawyer may charge a legal fee for assisting with an application to designate a successor signatory pursuant to this Rule.(3) The Supreme Court may designate a successor signatory and may direct the safeguarding of funds from such trust, escrow or special account, and the disbursement of such funds to persons who are entitled thereto, and may order that funds in such account be deposited with the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection for safeguarding and disbursement to persons who are entitled thereto.
Pawlik properly commenced this proceeding, and served all papers upon the relevant Grievance Committee, as directed by the court. She is a member in good standing of the New York Bar, and has submitted proof that she was affiliated with the deceased attorney in the practice of law.
