Trusts and EstatesTwo New York lawyers agreed to pay $510,000 in restitution to a dead client's trust and charitable foundation from which the state Attorney General's Office alleged they illegally paid themselves more than $1.3 million.

In a statement through their spokesman, Long Island attorneys Paul Marchese and Robin Maynard of Marchese & Maynard said their actions were justified. They also said the settlement terms with the office of the New York Attorney General were just a fraction of what the state originally demanded.

Marchese and Maynard said that they had provided their client, Helen Gottlieb, who died in 2008, more than two decades of unpaid work, and the parties had agreed for that service to be repaid from the estate. However, Marchese and Maynard could not document the agreement.