Biglaw Partner's New Wife Stole Inheritance Says Ex-Wife

Unfortunately, as with so many who die leaving a reasonably hefty estate, Goldsmith's legacy is locked up in court, and in the court of public opinion.

Let’s take a look at today’s New York Post:

“A high-powered Manhattan trial lawyer expertly juggled his addiction to cocaine, booze and hookers with a lucrative career — but he was no match for his scheming lover, his ex-wife says.”

The obituary section just got real.

No, it’s not really the obituary section, but it is the latest lawyer scandal to grace the pages of New York’s leading source for lurid tales of the rich and powerful and world class NY Jets trolling….

Hank Goldsmith was a noted litigation partner at Proskauer. Goldsmith tragically died of pancreatic cancer last year. Unfortunately, as with so many who die leaving a reasonably hefty estate, Goldsmith’s legacy is locked up in court, and in the court of public opinion.

His former wife and mother of his children, Debra Karlstein, herself a criminal defense attorney, helpfully told the Post about a number of her late ex-husband’s personal foibles.

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“Hank had a lot of issues, yes,” said Karlstein, who describes her ex in the suit as a “man with many demons,” including, “cocaine, pills and alcohol… sugary foods, nicotine patches, pornography, strip clubs and prostitutes.”

Oooh. I love one of these things is not like the other! “Sugary foods”? How many Twinkies do you have to eat in a day to land that after cocaine but before prostitutes? It’s got to be a lot. Or that Twinkie from Ghostbusters.

In any event, Karlstein has a more serious beef with her ex-husband’s estate, claiming that his new wife married him on his deathbed and stole $1.5 million from Karlstein’s kids.

The woman [Second wife Deborah Lee] convinced party-boy Proskauer partner Harry [Hank] [ed. note: Proskauer informs us that the Post incorrectly named him Harry in their article] Goldsmith to marry her as he lay dying of pancreatic cancer — then brought a team of lawyers to his deathbed to rewrite his will, spurned spouse Debra Karlstein claims in a Manhattan Surrogate’s Court lawsuit.
Karlstein says the scheme by her ex’s second wife, Deborah Lee, cheated their three young sons of a $1.5 million inheritance.

Adding insult to injury, Lee is suing Karlstein for $155,000 — the balance that Karlstein owed Goldsmith to buy him out of their West 72nd Street apartment, the ex says.
Karlstein says she and her sons — twin 10-year-olds and a 14-year-old — were allowed to live in the $2.3 million apartment as part of her and Goldsmith’s child-support pact. She said she was to then get the home when Goldsmith died in June 2013.

Dude, of all the foibles in this article, the only one we can guarantee Goldsmith had was a Debra/Deborah fetish.

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Proskauer is representing Lee in her legal tussle with Karlstein and publicly came to the defense of their fallen comrade.

A spokeswoman for Proskauer, who represents Lee, said in a statement, “We are saddened by this unwarranted attempt to tarnish Hank’s reputation.”

“Hank Goldsmith was a‎ brilliant trial and appellate lawyer, representing clients with distinction in many important and precedent-setting cases.”

She added, “He loved the practice of law, the firm, his clients and his family, and the feeling was mutual.”

Obviously we’re in the very preliminary stages of this case, but reading between the lines of the article already exposes a number of problems with Karlstein’s account. First of all, she The Post [in an entirely believable lapse in research, The Post suggests that Karlsrein called Lee a “mistress” even though Karlstein never did] characterizes Deborah Lee as Goldsmith’s “mistress” even though by all accounts Goldsmith didn’t start seeing Lee until a year after he divorced Karlstein. Secondly, this story makes it sound like Goldsmith’s rewritten will disinherited his children. And yet it never really says that. Because buried in the story is a throwaway line explaining that the kids are still getting $3.75 million. Karlstein is just complaining that Lee — who was, in fact, Goldsmith’s second wife — is getting any inheritance at all on the logic that but for her inheritance the kids would get more.

Sorry, it doesn’t really work like that. If you wanted to keep him from providing for his second wife, you kinda needed to remain his only wife.

My party boy husband’s mistress stole $1.5M on his deathbed [NY Post]