Less than a week after the filing of a lawsuit by the Town of Rhinebeck and local residents to overturn zoning decisions by Hyde Park and Clinton on behalf of a proposed Six Senses resort project, attorneys for the developer have filed a motion to try and remove Rhinebeck’s town attorney from the case.
Fordham Law Professor Bruce Green, director of the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics, told The Daily Catch that attorney Kenneth Stenger’s arguments to disqualify Warren Replansky, legal counsel for the Town of Rhinebeck, are unlikely to hold in a court of law.
According to Bruce Green, Director of the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics at Fordham University School of Law, Stenger’s arguments are unlikely to prevail in court.
The Town of Rhinebeck and the remaining plaintiffs appear to share a common interest in opposing the development, Green said. As long as Replansky was transparent about representing multiple parties and obtained their informed consent, his actions would likely be viewed as standard practice, he added.
Green also said that the absence of complaints from any of Replansky’s clients, such as the Town of Rhinebeck, undermines the credibility of the motion. Courts are generally reluctant to grant disqualification requests brought by someone other than the potentially affected clients, Green said. “The conflict of interest rules are meant for the protection of the plaintiffs in this situation, and none of them are complaining,” Green said.
Multi-party representation is not inherently improper, Green added. Lawyers are permitted to represent more than one client in the same matter if they disclose any potential conflicts and secure informed consent. Given that Replansky’s clients have not objected, the court is likely to presume he has acted ethically, Green said.
A more appropriate venue to raise concerns about misconduct, Green added, would be the attorney grievance committee, not the courtroom. “It’s an unusual disqualification motion,” he said.