ICN Among Lawyer’s Victims, Officials Say

Prominent New York attorney Harvey Myerson needs a good lawyer.

Earlier this month, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn charged Myerson with racketeering, fraud and numerous other charges for allegedly stealing $2.5 million from his corporate clients and partners at the law firm he founded with Bowie Kuhn, the former baseball commissioner. Myerson, federal officials said, routinely overbilled clients to help finance a lavish lifestyle of Rolls-Royces, Cartier diamond rings and swank getaways.

ICN Pharmaceuticals, a Costa Mesa drug company, was a case in point, according to federal officials.

A New York federal grand jury that indicted Myerson claims that he billed ICN for $14,841.76 in personal American Express charges that included gifts to what it said were “female friends.” ICN also allegedly paid for most of a $20,000 junket Myerson took with a top New York fashion model to the 1989 Kentucky Derby.

Myerson, 51, said in a statement last week that he “never engaged in improper billing. . . . Clients will testify in my behalf at trial.”

Kelley Oil Cos. in Houston unknowingly picked up the rest of the tab for the trip to the Louisville, Ky., racetrack, according to the indictment. Myerson, who has been called “the master of disaster” for his ability to save companies in legal trouble, is also accused of defrauding Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc.

“The crimes charged in the indictment reveal an unprecedented pattern of greed and dishonesty by a lawyer toward his own clients and law partners,” said Mary Jo White, chief assistant U.S. attorney in Brooklyn. “Myerson’s conduct makes a mockery of the legal profession’s duty of loyalty and integrity.”

ICN, whom Myerson represented in litigation and regulatory matters, didn’t want to talk about the New York lawyer this week.

“We are under strictures not to discuss this matter at this time,” said Jack Sholl, an ICN spokesman. “We have no further comment.”

Myerson has the dubious distinction of being a partner in the two largest law firms to ever go bankrupt. Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey collapsed in 1987. Myerson & Kuhn, which had an office in Los Angeles and was established in January, 1988, after Finley Kumble’s failure, filed for bankruptcy in December, 1989.

Three major books have been written about the collapse of Finley Kumble, and all have included unflattering portrayals of Myerson. “Conduct Unbecoming,” written by former Finley Kumble partner Steven J. Kumble, called Myerson “the Agent Orange of the legal profession.”