Frederick Oberlander, a New York lawyer who is fighting disciplinary authorities over allegations that he misused sealed documents related to Felix Sater, had his suspension from the state bar voided on Wednesday.

The Appellate Division, Second Department said in an order that it had "recalled and vacated" its decision to suspend Oberlander's law license because he is still appealing a federal court ruling that the state court had based its decision upon. No suspension has ever actually gone into effect in Oberlander's yearslong fight with disciplinary authorities.

Oberlander was originally sanctioned for filing a suit against the real estate company Bayrock Group that contained information from sealed court filings. Sater, a businessman who pleaded guilty to participating in a stock fraud scheme in the late 1990s, went on to become an FBI informant and worked at Bayrock in the 2000s. More recently, Sater grabbed headlines when he appeared in special counsel Robert Mueller's report, which said he had explored the possibility of a Trump Tower project in Moscow.

According to the 2018 decision by the grievance committee of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, sealed filings from the criminal case against Sater were on a hard drive that a Bayrock employee subsequently shared with Oberlander. Oberlander attached several of the sealed documents to a suit that accused Bayrock of a wide-ranging fraud scheme, the 2018 decision said.

Oberlander has argued that his free speech rights have been trampled, according to the federal decision. He has also disputed that he was properly served in the state disciplinary proceedings. In a statement, he said he was "gratified" by Wednesday's decision.

"I am gratified that the court by its order recognized that no discipline has ever been imposed on me in any forum, all imposition stayed, in the case of the EDNY pending appeal" to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, he wrote.

Richard E. Lerner, an attorney who represented Oberlander, has also faced disciplinary charges over his involvement in the case, but he remains a member of the bar.

In Wednesday's decision, Oberlander was ordered to update the Second Department as soon as the appeal of the federal suspension decision concluded one way or another. That case is currently on hold, stayed until a related appeal involving Lerner's law license is resumed. Lerner's appeal has been paused until a district court rules on a motion to unseal the docket in his underlying case.

Several years ago, Eastern District Judge Brian Cogan referred Oberlander to prosecutors for possible charges of criminal contempt. He subsequently accused prosecutors of slow-walking what should be an urgent case, and it was revealed last year that an investigation was still active when arguments took place in open court before the Second Circuit regarding a subpoena.