Made in New York.

Defendant is a Pennsylvania lawyer who was retained by a New York resident to represent him in a probate matter in Connecticut. Defendant collected more than $400,000 in legal fees and allegedly appropriated a $200,000 "success fee" from the proceeds of a settlement which defendant procured. After his death, the client's estate commenced this action to recover a substantial portion of the legal fees, alleging that they were excessive. The estate also seeks the return of the success fee. The First Department denied defendant's motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction, in Scheuer v. Schwartz, which was decided on July 5, 2007. Even though the retainer agreement was not executed in New York, the court found that, in performing the agreement, defendant's contacts with New York were sufficient to merit long-arm jurisdiction pursuant to CPLR 302(a)(1). The court noted that defendant made at least ten trips to New York in connection with the matter, and that, among other things, he reviewed documents in the offices of his client's former attorneys and had several meetings with both his client and his client's adversaries in the probate proceeding. Defendant billed approximately 70 hours for work performed in New York, representing approximately 8% of the approximate 824 total hours billed for the Connecticut matter.