In August, prominent Manhattan lawyer Marc S. Dreier was in court arguing that celebrity editor Judith Regan had stiffed his firm out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.
“Lawyers have rights, too,” the founder of the law firm Dreier LLP told the judge, as reported in New York’s Daily News.
Yesterday, Dreier was in another court, this one in Canada, attending his own bail hearing.
Dreier, 58, had been arrested Tuesday on criminal charges of impersonation with intent.
According to newspaper reports, he allegedly pretended to be Michael Padfield, senior legal counsel of the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, at a meeting with a subsidiary of Fortress Investment Group.
At the hearing Friday, Dreier posted bail of $100,000 in cash and was set free, the Toronto Star reported.
Edward L. Greenspan, a Canadian lawyer, represented the Harvard Law School graduate.
After the hearing, Greenspan told reporters that Dreier was “charged with a minor offence under Canadian law.”
Greenspan was an attorney for former publisher Conrad M. Black at his fraud trail last year in Chicago. Black was convicted and sentence to 78 months in prison.
The blog, Above the Law, which broke the story Thursday, wrote that Dreier might have been attempting to secure a loan.
The site reported that Dreier’s 250-lawyer firm might be short on cash and unable to meet its Dec. 15 payroll.
On Thursday afternoon, it canceled its annual holiday party to be held that night at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City.
The New York Post reported Friday that Dreier has a $660,000 IRS lien on an apartment he owns on East 58th St. in New York City, as well as a $98,000 federal lien on an Southampton, Long Island, property he owns.
However, by all outward appearances, the firm he founded in 1996 after leaving the New York office of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP, was doing well.
Dreier LLP has had high-profile clients, including Regan and the billionaire developer Sheldon Solow. In October, the firm represented Jay Leno in a dispute over a vintage automobile.
In addition, the firm had several spin-offs and affiliates, including Dreier Sports Opportunities, which it formed earlier this year with the intent of representing athletes in their business affairs.
Marc Dreier is a close friend of Michael Strahan, a former New York Giants football player. For three years they have hosted the Michael Strahan and Dreier LLP Charity Golf Tournament.
This year, Alicia Keys performed at the event. Guests included filmmaker Spike Lee and former basketball great Julius Erving.
Click here to sign up for the Muckety Newsletter
1 Comments
#1. Jack Markson 12.07.2008
Regan did not stiff Dreier. Dreier was fired for cause by Regan (gee I guess Regan was right), she paid him, he sent the money back then lied (gee, what a surprise) and fabricated a story tht Regan had stiffed him. Dreier is the one who stiffed people —his clients and co-workers.
Leave a Comment