Disbarred Chatham Lawyer Sentenced To Prison For Embezzling Funds

CHATHAM, NJ — A disbarred Chatham lawyer will serve time in prison for stealing Covid-19 relief funds and defrauding his clients out of $575,000 in settlement funds, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced.

Raleigh Douglas Herbert, 61, was sentenced on Wednesday to one to three years in prison for stealing approximately $575,000 in settlement funds from two dozen of his clients in Brooklyn as well as approximately $96,000 in COVID-19 relief funds.

Herbert, who has since been disbarred, pleaded guilty to second and third-degree grand larceny in December 2022, Gonzalez said.

Herbert also continued to represent the grandmother of a victim in an NYPD wrongful-death lawsuit who was set to receive a $750,000 settlement even after he was suspended from practice, prosecutors said, and never told her.

"This defendant repeatedly violated his oath as an attorney and betrayed the trust of his clients by pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlement money and COVID-19 relief funds to which he was not entitled. Criminal conduct in the legal profession is unacceptable, and today’s sentence sends a strong message that it will be prosecuted vigorously by my office," Gonzalez said.

Prosecutors said Herbert handled wrongful arrest and personal injury lawsuits against the city and embezzled money from clients between 2015 and 2021, depositing checks into his attorney escrow account.

To cover up these thefts, he lied to his clients about why they didn't receive the money, blaming COVID-19-related court closures or claiming that the victims had liens that prevented him from paying them when no such liens existed.

Herbert spent a large portion of the stolen funds on personal expenses and unrelated debts, prosecutors said.

"The theft of law client money is not only a crime but a profound violation of the trust placed in lawyers. On behalf of the over 351,000 members of New York’s legal profession, the Lawyers’ Fund strives to restore that trust by reimbursing the financial harm caused by the statistically few in our profession who cause such losses," Michael J. Knight, Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection said.

Herbert, was suspended from practicing law in March 2021, was arrested in February of this year and then faced additional charges in May and December.

In June, he was officially disbarred, and in December, he pleaded guilty to grand larceny and conspiracy to defraud.

To date, the Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection of the State of New York has reimbursed 16 of the defendant's victims for a total of approximately $470,000.

Herbert previously served on the Chatham Zoning Board of Adjustment and ran in the 2010 New Jersey 11th Congressional District race, where he lost against Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen.