Business advocates are worried that the lawsuit-happy trial-lawyers lobby already has its hooks into Sheldon Silver’s likely successor as Assembly speaker, Carl Heastie of The Bronx.
Silver was the king of the trial lawyers during his 20-year reign as speaker — blocking efforts to curb New York’s sky-high jury awards and other litigation costs.
A top Heastie political adviser and college pal, Patrick Jenkins, is a lobbyist for the New York State Trial Lawyers Association.
Jenkins pulls in $8,000 a month fighting for trial lawyers in the halls of Albany — which often means killing any legislation that could cut fat jury payouts to lawyers and litigation costs for local governments and businesses.
Heastie pays Jenkins $4,000 a month as his political consultant through the Bronx Democratic Party’s housekeeping account, state Board of Elections show. Heastie is the county’s Democratic leader.
Heastie has received $26,300 in campaign contributions from trial lawyer groups since 2000, more than any of the other candidates that have sought to become Assembly speaker, according to the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York.
“If Assemblyman Heastie is elected speaker, decisions will be based exclusively on the best interests of New Yorkers,” insisted Heastie spokesman Eric Soufer.