Appellate Division, Second Department, Brooklyn, NY.(David Handschuh/NYLJ) Brooklyn Lawyer Surrenders License After 6 Decades Amid Escrow Account Allegations
An Appellate Division, Second Department panel wrote that the professional misconduct investigation arose from a client's complaint, and that allegations included veteran lawyer Joseph George Costello's alleged failure to safeguard funds as a fiduciary held on behalf of an estate, including an approximate shortfall of at least $170,000 that happened in the account.
August 02, 2021 at 09:49 PM
4 minute read
A state appeals court has accepted the resignation of a Brooklyn-based attorney who practiced law for more than 60 years, after he admitted that he can't defend against allegations he failed to safeguard funds held in an escrow account on behalf of an estate, and that he disbursed at least one check from the account after he'd already been suspended for a year because of professional misconduct in the matter.
The lawyer, Joseph George Costello, was admitted to the New York state bar in 1959 and, according to an earlier 2019 disciplinary decision, practiced law in more recent years with his son at the Brooklyn firm of Costello & Costello. Legal website listings say his practice included business law, real estate law, landlord and tenant law and surrogate's court practice, among other specialties. One site, Lawyers.com, listed him as also having worked in private practice serving Howell, New Jersey.
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