On Friday, October 24, 2025, the New York Post reported that a group of 25 New York City attorneys received a disproportionately high number of court appointments from Brooklyn Judge Lawrence Knipel after donating to his wife’s political campaign committee.

The report alleges that Judge Knipel, who is set to retire at the end of October, allocated nearly 900 “fiduciary appointments” to these attorneys between 2022 and 2024. These 25 attorneys collectively donated $25,000 to the campaign of Knipel’s wife, Lori Knipel, a Brooklyn Democratic Party district leader.

Fiduciary appointments involve overseeing assets in court cases, and attorneys can earn fees ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars for these assignments. Judge Knipel made approximately 1,800 fiduciary appointments during the two-year period, with nearly half going to the group of 25 lawyers connected to his wife’s political activities.

One attorney reportedly earned over $55,000 from a single “receivership” appointment in 2023, one of 25 such appointments granted by Judge Knipel that year. Another attorney received over 150 fiduciary appointments between 2022 and 2024, including cases involving the management of real estate properties in default.

Legal experts and former judges have raised concerns about the ethics of these appointments. Retired First Department Judge David Saxe suggested that judges should distribute appointments among a wider range of qualified lawyers. Grace Rauh, executive director of Citizen’s Union, emphasized that judicial appointments should be based on merit and not influenced by political connections or financial interests.

Judge Knipel, who has served as a New York City judge since 1991 and as an administrative judge in Kings County from 2013 until late last year, stated that he was unaware of who contributed to any campaign committee. He maintained that the appointments were made as one of the assigned Foreclosure part Judges, not as an administrative judge, and were based on a list approved by the State Office of Court Administration.

Records indicate a significant increase in the number of appointments made by Knipel in recent years. Between 2012 and 2021, he made a total of 527 appointments, compared to 1,800 appointments between 2022 and 2024, including 600 in 2023 alone.

The New York Post’s investigation highlighted specific cases involving attorneys who benefited from these appointments. Queens attorney Helmut Borchert received 39 referee appointments in 2023, earning him over $21,000 in fees. Borchert and his firm, Borchert & Laspina, collectively donated $9,200 to Lori Knipel’s political committee since 2010 and received a total of 161 appointments between 2022 and 2024.

Harry Horowitz, who passed away last spring and was not an attorney, donated $900 to the judge’s wife and received 25 receiver assignments in 2023, earning $94,863 in fees from eight resolved cases. One case involving foreclosed buildings in Williamsburg and Bushwick netted him $55,206. Michael D. Benjamin, another attorney, received 151 appointments during the same period and donated nearly $3,000 to Lori Knipel since 2013. Benjamin had previously been disbarred in 1994 for misconduct related to a drug addiction but was readmitted to the bar in 2015.

The firm Borchert & Laspina, Benjamin, and Horowitz collectively received over 20% of all fiduciary appointments made by Knipel between 2022 and 2024.

With Judge Knipel’s impending retirement, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct may not be able to complete a full investigation. However, the commission could refer the matter to other ethics groups, such as the attorney grievance committee. Robert Tembeckjian, head of the state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct, noted that the SCJC has removed judges in the past for misconduct related to fiduciary appointments.

 

 

Source: New York Post