Hodgson Russ agrees to $50,000 payment to settle attorney general complaint
By Tom Precious
- News Albany Bureau
Updated: 05/08/08 1:49 PM
A major Buffalo law firm has agreed to pay $50,000 to settle a state Attorney General's investigation into improper classification of lawyers as school district employees.
Andrew Cuomo's widening probe included the settlement with Hodgson Russ, which for years has represented BOCES districts in Erie to Monroe counties.
Cuomo said the scheme in which the firm's lawyers were listed as school employees did not personally benefit the attorneys by giving them entry to the state's pension system, as other investigations have uncovered in the past month.
Rather, the classification as employees generated greater state aid payments for BOCES and its covered school districts than would have been awarded had the lawyers been simply listed as outside contractors.
The BOCES entities covered 112 school districts across the region.
Cuomo said there was evidence BOCES approached the firm with the idea as a way to drive more state aid to it and the districts. Cuomo said this afternoon he did not yet know how much extra state aid was improperly paid to the BOCES and the school districts. He said the investigation is still ongoing as to whether there will be any legal or financial actions against any of the BOCES entities or individuals.
In other investigations, Cuomo has found private lawyers were put on school district payrolls, sometimes when they worked only few hours a year. The arrangement, however, made the lawyers eligible to join the state pension system, which was worth in some cases in excess of $100,000 in retirement benefits before Cuomo's investigations ended the practice. See Wednesday's Buffalo News for full story.
