Posted on 02/25/2006 8:40:39 PM PST by chet_in_ny
A senior in-house lawyer at the New York Life Insurance Co. has resigned after the company discovered in recent weeks that he had never been licensed to practice law.
Michael A. Watson, 44, first joined the insurance giant in 1996 and had been promoted last July to first vice president and deputy general counsel. One of five deputies, he was responsible for the unit of the company's legal department focused on investments, mergers and acquisitions and financial transactions.
In a statement issued Tuesday, New York Life spokesman William Werfelman said Watson had resigned immediately after admitting he was not licensed. He declined to describe how the company discovered Watson's status.
"He is no longer with the company. All current New York Life Insurance Company attorneys are properly licensed," Werfelman said in the statement. "This individual worked for two large law firms in New York City prior to joining our company and at this time it is difficult to know why this wasn't picked up. He never appeared before any tribunal in his capacity as counsel for our company."
Watson did not return a call to his home Tuesday.
The largest mutual life insurance company in the United States, New York Life has a 47-lawyer general counsel's office headed by Thomas English, to whom Watson reported. English in turn reported to Sheila Davidson, the company's executive vice president for law and corporate administration. The company had $160 billion in assets in 2004.
(Excerpt) Read more at biz.yahoo.com ...
L
Call me crazy...but before you hire any licensed professional...shouldn't you check their license???
Their compliance department will be pretty busy rechecking, uh, pretty much every paper document produced by the company since he was hired. LMAO!
EEO program?
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
But he was really just a department manager. At some point in the chain, lawyers have to report to non-lawyers, don't they?
His whole career was a fraud- people and entities relied on his professional knowledge (or at least their errors and omissions insurance coverage did).
Hired in 1996. Compliance was a little loose then. If he had a good reference, from somebody else who either hadn't checked, or who he'd just told, "Well, I just passed the bar exam, so I'm off to a better job..."
Lawyers don't sue lawyers. There are enough of us peons around to keep them busy forever.
Can you clear up whether he ever went to law school? It just says he had no license, so I find the information ambiguous.
He went to Columbia Law School back in 1986. He either didn't take the bar or couldn't pass it. Somewhere along the line someone didn't bother to check, they took him at his word.
Funny, but a 3 second search would have revealed all:
http://portal.courts.state.ny.us/pls/portal30/internetdb_dev.menu_internetdb.show
You're wrong there. Lawyers sue other lawyers all the time for malpractice (on behalf of a previous client). It's very common, and a cash cow.
You're right, and one would think you wouldn't need to check since it is the ultimate slap in the face to the profession to charade as a lawyer... the bar exam and passing it is the one thing that unites all lawyers.
in 1986 you would ask what department the prospective emploee-lawyer was admitted to (NY has four departments or legal jurisdictions) and simply call that department.
Did this guy's position require that he be licensed to perform his job? I thought bar membership was important as a litigator, but how many court appearances would the guy have needed to make, if any at all?
I seem to remember a certain ex-president who was disbarred for about 5 years and it's not like he stayed home and ran the vacuum.
It doesn't say he doesn't have a law degree, just not a law license. A degree is forever, a license has to be periodically renewed. A degree is issued by a law school, while a License is issued by each state, and generally requires passing a bar exam, with the exception that some states will allow licensing of people who have taken the exam in other states, but the lawyers still have to get a license in every state they wish to practice in.
That said, it's quite possible that there is nothing illegal here. If it's like engineering, which also requires a license for public practice, then a strictly "in house" lawyer, that never took members of the general public as clients and never presented a case in any court, then it might just be legal. If he'd been the chief counsel, then that would be different. At least it works that way with engineers, only the person signing the drawings for public or governmental consumption need be licensed (in general).
Guess you and I are both crazy. I had the same thought.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.