Lawyer for Holocaust survivors criticized for fee

The lawyer who represented Holocaust survivors in a lawsuit against Swiss banks is facing criticism from some of the victims, who say they are angry he’s charging millions for work they believed was being done for free.

The dispute has now landed in court. An American group of Holocaust survivors has filed an objection to lawyer Burt Neuborne’s almost $4.1 million (€3.4 million) bill for work he did after the 1998 settlement in the case, The New York Times reported Saturday. On Friday Neuborne filed papers seeking to refute those objections, and asked a judge to hold a hearing on his fee.

“No. 1 – that he was telling us all along that he will not get paid,” said David Mermelstein, 77, who was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where his family was killed. “And No. 2, to take away this money from the needy survivors is a crime.”

Holocaust survivors and their families sued Credit Suisse, UBS AG and other Swiss banks, accusing them of stealing, concealing or sending to the Nazis hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Jewish holdings and destroying bank records to cover the paper trail.

In 1998, U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman in Brooklyn approved a $1.25 billion settlement and appointed a tribunal to process thousands of claims.

Neuborne, the court-appointed representative for survivors worldwide, defended his work, which he said he never promised would be free.

“It was a grueling job that nobody else wanted, and that I have done faithfully and successfully for seven years,” Neuborne said.