Court Boots Smithtown Law Firm from Divorce Case

Smithtown law firm Castrovinci, Blydenburgh & Mady was thrown off of a high-profile divorce case by a state appellate court because its hiring of former Suffolk County Legis. Donald Blydenburgh presented a conflict of interest.

According to a Newsday report, Blydenburg had ruled in favor of Devon Mandich, the wife of Empire National Bank chief executive Douglas Mandich, when he was still state Supreme Court Justice. At the time he had just been made a partner in the Smithtown firm.

From the story:

In court papers, Douglas Manditch's attorney, Glenn Koopersmith of Garden City, said it "strains credulity to believe" that Devon Manditch's law firm and Blydenburgh "were not discussing, negotiating and planning for him to join the firm" while he was writing an order in favor of the firm's client.

Blydenburgh put in his retirement papers on Aug. 27, 2010, a week before he issued his final order in the case.

Click here to read the entire report.