Brooklyn Lawyer Blamed COVID Closures While Stealing $400K: DA

BROOKLYN, NY — A Brooklyn lawyer who blamed coronavirus delays while lining his own bank account with client's money has been busted on embezzlement charges, according to prosecutors.

Raleigh Douglas Herbert — who lives in New Jersey and has an office on Court Street — was arraigned Tuesday for the years-long scheme, which raked in around $400,000 from Brooklyn clients, prosecutors said.

Herbert even kept embezzling money from clients after he was suspended from practicing law in 2021, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney.

“Attorneys have a special duty to protect their clients’ interests, but this defendant allegedly betrayed that trust and his oath by stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlements owed to those he represented," District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. "The criminal misconduct alleged in this indictment cannot be tolerated in the legal profession, and we are committed to holding this defendant accountable and vindicating the rights of his alleged victims.”

Herbert, 60, had been embezzling money since at least 2015 from clients who he represented in wrongful arrest or personal injury cases against New York City, prosecutors said.

In all, he stole $400,000 from nine clients by putting their settlement money in his own bank account, prosecutors said. Herbert would lie to the clients about why they didn't get the money, including blaming it on coronavirus-related court delays, according to the DA.

Authorities most recently caught Herbert representing a client in a wrongful death lawsuit last year despite the fact that he had been suspended from practicing law in New York in March 2021, prosecutors said. Herbert did not tell the client — who was set to receive a $750,000 settlement — that he had been suspended, they said.

Herbert is one of two New York City lawyers that faced embezzlement charges this week.

Another lawyer in Queens admitted to stealing more than $1.8 million from his clients' personal injury lawsuit settlements between Aug. 2015 and 2020, according to a press release from Queens prosecutors. That lawyer similarly also represented clients after getting disbarred in Nov. 2017, records show.

In Brooklyn, Herbert is charged with second-degree and third-degree grand larceny, first-degree scheme to defraud, second-degree criminal contempt, and practicing law as an attorney while being suspended. He was released without bail and ordered to return to court in April, the DA's office said.

The DA encouraged anyone who believes they have been victimized by Herbert to contact the District Attorney’s Action Center at 718-250-2340.