ALBANY - Herbert Teitelbaum, a prominent Manhattan lawyer, has been chosen as executive director of the state Ethics Commission.
Teitelbaum will be paid $140,000 a year in the post, said commission Chairman John Feerick in a statement issued Wednesday.
Feerick also said, as expected, that Teitelbaum would be his candidate to chair the state's new Commission on Public Integrity, which will take over the operations of the ethics commission and of the state Lobbying Commission in September.
The executive director's job at the ethics commission has been vacant since March when Karl Sleight left to join a private law firm.
Teitelbaum, 64, has been a senior litigation partner with the Bryan Cave law firm since 1996 and from 1972-77 was the founding legal director of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.
A graduate of Brandeis University and New York University's law school, Teitelbaum is also connected by marriage to a couple of the state's legal titans. His wife is Ruth Abram, a daughter of the late Morris Abram, a noted civil rights lawyer and a former Brandeis president. The couple's daughter, Anna, is married to Gordon Kaye, a son of New York Chief Judge Judith Kaye.
“Herbert Teitelbaum is a lawyer's lawyer,” Feerick said in announcing the appointment.
In his statement, Feerick also used the opportunity to praise David Grandeau, executive director of the lobbying commission and a critic in the past of the ethics commission for what he has said is a lack of aggressive enforcement. Grandeau has also been critical of the plans for the new commission.
“David has been a strong and important advocate for reform in New York. I look forward to working with him and the staff of the lobbying commission as we move forward with the merger,” Feerick said.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat and the driving force behind creation of the integrity commission and of Feerick's appointment to run the transition, has been treading lightly in his dealings with the often outspoken Grandeau.
Grandeau said Wednesday that he had never met Teitelbaum but looked forward “to working together to insure that the lobbying commission's record of unquestioned integrity and accomplishment is not jeopardized by the transition process.”
Grandeau also said, however, that he feared the process “could result in a commission that does not meet the high standards set by the lobbying commission.”
The lobbying commission, under Grandeau's leadership, has gotten high marks from independent government watchdog groups for what they say has been an aggressive enforcement of the state law requiring lobbyists and their clients to report what they are spending and who they are trying to influence.
Feerick also said, as expected, that Teitelbaum would be his candidate to chair the state's new Commission on Public Integrity, which will take over the operations of the ethics commission and of the state Lobbying Commission in September.
The executive director's job at the ethics commission has been vacant since March when Karl Sleight left to join a private law firm.
Teitelbaum, 64, has been a senior litigation partner with the Bryan Cave law firm since 1996 and from 1972-77 was the founding legal director of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.
A graduate of Brandeis University and New York University's law school, Teitelbaum is also connected by marriage to a couple of the state's legal titans. His wife is Ruth Abram, a daughter of the late Morris Abram, a noted civil rights lawyer and a former Brandeis president. The couple's daughter, Anna, is married to Gordon Kaye, a son of New York Chief Judge Judith Kaye.
“Herbert Teitelbaum is a lawyer's lawyer,” Feerick said in announcing the appointment.
In his statement, Feerick also used the opportunity to praise David Grandeau, executive director of the lobbying commission and a critic in the past of the ethics commission for what he has said is a lack of aggressive enforcement. Grandeau has also been critical of the plans for the new commission.
“David has been a strong and important advocate for reform in New York. I look forward to working with him and the staff of the lobbying commission as we move forward with the merger,” Feerick said.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat and the driving force behind creation of the integrity commission and of Feerick's appointment to run the transition, has been treading lightly in his dealings with the often outspoken Grandeau.
Grandeau said Wednesday that he had never met Teitelbaum but looked forward “to working together to insure that the lobbying commission's record of unquestioned integrity and accomplishment is not jeopardized by the transition process.”
Grandeau also said, however, that he feared the process “could result in a commission that does not meet the high standards set by the lobbying commission.”
The lobbying commission, under Grandeau's leadership, has gotten high marks from independent government watchdog groups for what they say has been an aggressive enforcement of the state law requiring lobbyists and their clients to report what they are spending and who they are trying to influence.
