Ex-S&C Lawyer Testifies He Was ‘Enraged’ at Astor’s Will Changes
The former Sullivan & Cromwell lawyer who represented both Brooke Astor and her son testified yesterday that he was “enraged” to learn he had been fired and the son designated sole executor of her estate.
Henry Christensen III, now a lawyer at McDermott, Will & Emery, said he believed Astor’s son, Anthony Marshall, was behind the firing in February 2004, Bloomberg reports. Marshall is accused of taking advantage of his mother’s declining mental condition to benefit himself and another lawyer, Francis X. Morrissey.
Christensen said Astor was competent to sign a codicil to “tinker around the edges” of her will but not to sign an entirely new will, the New York Daily News reports. Christensen drafted a codicil signed by Astor that gave Marshall the right to decide which charities got 49 percent of her trust money, worth about $60 million. Christensen said he disagreed with Marshall’s request for “full discretionary authority” managing her estate, but he learned after his firing that Marshall was named executor. Prosecutors contend the new will was signed as a result of fraud.
The New York Times account of Christensen’s testimony tells of one exchange in which a prosecutor asked Christensen what he had said about one of the lawyers who replaced him, G. Warren Whitaker.
“Mr. Christensen blushed and pulled back as if he was about to deliver an appalling four letter word,” the Times story says. “He said he did not recall, but eventually chipped in, ‘It has been said that I called Mr. Whitaker a second-rate lawyer.’ ”
Prior coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Ex-S&C Lawyer Denies Conflict in Brooke Astor Representation”
ABAJournal.com: “Ex-S&C Lawyer Tells of Astor’s Alzheimer’s Diagnosis, Later Painting Sale”
ABAJournal.com: “McDermott Partner Testifies on Brooke Astor’s Embarrassment”
