Son Of Sam Lawyer Resigns
The colorful career of an attorney admitted in 1969 has ended in an accepted resignation by the New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department.
Respondent acknowledges that he is currently the subject of an investigation by the Attorney Grievance Committee (AGC) concerning four matters. In a matrimonial matter respondent acknowledges that he engaged in multiple acts of professional misconduct that include, charging an excessive fee, failure to submit timely invoices, and neglecting the matter by failing to finalize the judgment of divorce. He further acknowledges that the client in the matrimonial matter sued him for malpractice and breach of contract and obtained a judgment against him after trial in the amount of $523,536.00 with interest that he has not paid.
As to the three other matters under investigation, respondent acknowledges that he engaged in at least the following acts of professional misconduct: he failed to communicate with a client in a criminal matter; he failed to provide a retainer agreement to a client in a criminal matter; and he neglected a client matter in a criminal case.
He had been suspended for five years in 1994 and reinstated in 1999.
From an extensive 2010 New York Times profile quoted in part below
A chandelier in a second-story window on East 66th Street goes dark, and the lawyer steps out of his town house. He walks toward Park Avenue and settles into an unhurried amble for nine blocks, clutching a black briefcase whose color matches his combed-back hair. He passes doormen, tourists, dog-walking ladies, joggers. His hunched shoulders and slight limp suggest a laborer joylessly shuffling toward the morning whistle — except it is 6:30 p.m. and he is wearing French cuffs.
In this manner on a given weeknight, Mark Jay Heller, 64, arrives at a generic ninth-floor office to meet his clients: angry husbands, bitter wives, slip-and-fall victims, people who are bankrupt. It is an unorthodox routine, but there is little about the on-and-off law firm of Heller & Heller that one would call orthodox, starting with its continued existence.
Even within the colorful, eccentric, sometimes disreputable and profane galaxy that is the New York City bar, Mr. Heller stands out for the severe thrashings he has endured and his audacious aspirations for high-profile work. He has been disparaged and roundly dressed down by clients and judges alike, called a “menace to the public,” “shockingly cavalier and abusive” and rife with “puffery” by a disciplinary panel that recommended his five-year suspension in the mid-1990s. Opposing counsel has been known to quietly suggest that his clients consider finding a new lawyer. Among his most outspoken fans is a serial killer.
His recent celebrity cases, aspiring to the B list, play out before the cameras, Mr. Heller’s teeth bared against a tanned face. He handled Jon Gosselin’s divorce, sort of. He represented the so-called Manhattan Madam, briefly. He stood by the base-jumper who tried to parachute off the Empire State Building.
“He’ll take any side of the coin,” said Daniel C. Minc, a lawyer who has known Mr. Heller for 20 years. “He’s like a moth to a flame.”
One high profile matter
A watershed moment came at age 31, when he was hired by the half-sister of David Berkowitz, the infamous “Son of Sam,” who was arrested on the hot night of Aug. 10, 1977, for killing six people and wounding seven others.
“I liked Mark,” Mr. Berkowitz said in a prison interview last month.“He was just a very easygoing guy, like a college student almost, kind of like more my age.”
Mr. Heller clashed with other members of the defense team, and was off the case after a month. But he would return to the experience for years to come.
Then the United States Supreme Court voided a ban on advertising by lawyers. Mr. Heller was among the first to enter the crackling-paper scrum of the Yellow Pages: “Complete Legal Services,” his ads promised, swelling to a full page in the 1980s.
“There was, like, a taboo against legal marketing,” Mr. Minc recalled. “Mark shattered that taboo by aggressively marketing. He started in the Yellow Pages. He was basically the only one.”
Another client
MR. Heller returned to the spotlight in 2008 when he was hired to represent Kristin Davis, the Manhattan Madam (and now a third party candidate for governor). Charged with money laundering and promoting prostitution, she was stewing at Rikers Island in lieu of $2 million in bail.
“He gave me a big sales pitch, which included showing me articles about David Berkowitz, Puff Daddy, the base-jumper and others he had represented,” Ms. Davis said. Mr. Heller brought a theatrical flair to the case, once standing in court and ripping a copy of a prosecution filing, loudly declaring it “defective.” Ms. Davis fired him from her jail cell three months later, and later called his representation “disgraceful.”
“Heller told me that a bail reduction was not necessary because he was going to get the case dismissed,” she said. “Every time we went to court, he is saying, ‘Kristin, we are going to get you out today.’ ”
Ms. Davis said that about 10 days after she hired a new lawyer, she was released on a reduced bail of $400,000. She eventually pleaded guilty to promoting prostitution and was sentenced to time served in jail and five years’ probation.
By then, she had filed a complaint against Mr. Heller, saying she had paid him $50,000 in legal fees and given him $125,000 and jewelry as collateral for her bail. Ms. Davis said he returned the jewelry only after she hired a private investigator. The disciplinary committee took no action.