Suit Says NY Gov't Lawyer Earned $1M from Nixon Peabody, Seeks to Force Restitution to State
A government attorney in New York was paid nearly $1 million by Nixon Peabody over more than a decade as the law firm defended his county in land-claim litigation brought by the Oneida Indian Nation, giving him a disincentive to settle, a new lawsuit contends.
Filed by George Carpinello of Boies Schiller & Flexner, the Albany County suit seeks to force the state to recoup the money allegedly paid by Nixon Peabody to Madison County Attorney S. John Campanie and requests an injunction barring him from accepting further payments, according to the Oneida Daily Dispatch. It links to a copy of the complaint provided by Scribd.
It appears that the suit, which was filed on behalf of two individual Madison County residents who work for the Oneida group and names Campanie and state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli as defendants, may also seek additional damages based on any recovery obtained by the state. The complaint alleges that DiNapoli allowed the payments to continue after he was alerted to the alleged compensation arrangement between Campanie and the law firm, which the suit says is prohibited by state and county law.
The Associated Press and WKTV also have coverage about the case.
Campanie helped select Nixon Peabody as defense counsel in the Oneida litigation and allegedly was being paid $6,500 monthly by the law firm for the same work for which the county already was compensating him.
