AG probe of firm’s nursing home debt practice survives motion to quash subpoena

Law firm Abrams Fensterman lost its bid to halt New York Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation into its role in helping nursing homes recover unpaid bills.

James is looking into the Long Island-based firm’s “apparently systematic practice” of suing the relatives and friends of residents to collect on bills, including after the nursing home resident had died, and whether the scheme thwarts state and federal debt collection laws and a state law against deceptive business practices.

The attorney general issued a subpoena in June 2024 ordering Abrams Fensterman to hand over documents involving third parties the firm sued in the state of New York on behalf of a nursing home attempting to collect a resident’s debt.

After the firm refused to deliver those documents, and meetings between the parties failed to find resolution on the subpoena’s scope, the firm moved to quash the state’s action.

“Given NYAG’s prefatory findings, a sufficient basis appears to exist for the issuance of the subject investigatory subpoena,” Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Emily Morales-Minerva wrote in an Oct. 27 ruling.

Morales-Minerva, in a Nov. 6 ruling, also shot down the firm’s bid to disqualify an assistant attorney general from taking part in the investigation, citing previous cases in which the attorney represented, pro-bono and in limited scope, two third-party defendants against a plaintiff nursing home represented by Abrams Fensterman.

“Petitioner characterizes this bespoke representation as [the assistant attorney general] having ‘previously represented parties who were adverse to the petitioner’ Abrams Fensterman LLP. However, such framing is inaccurate and unduly personalized,” Morales-Minerva wrote.

Abrams Fensterman did not return a call seeking comment on the rulings.

In court papers, the firm claims its debt collection practices were legal and says the attorney general is using subpoena power to go on a “fishing expedition” through privileged documents.

“Case law has decisively held that law firms can properly pursue lawsuits like the ones at issue here,” Abrams Fensterman attorneys Alyssa Friedman and Joseph Addabbo wrote in a court filing.

According to the firm, the Nursing Home Reform Act doesn’t apply to lawyers — only nursing homes — and therefore can’t be the basis for the attorney general’s subpoena.

“If the AG wants to investigate the conditions under which these admission agreements were signed, it should subpoena nursing homes, not law firms,” the attorneys wrote, adding that the lawsuits themselves are publicly available.

Abrams Fensterman, which boasts around 115 attorneys, is known for its political ties on both sides of the aisle. It counts among its of-counsel attorneys Frank Carone, former chief of staff to Mayor Eric Adams, and a former partner at the firm. Managing partner Howard Fensterman also has ties to Adams — and to Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Trump ally.