ALBANY – In a move that one critic called a “fox-in-a-chicken coop problem,” the state Public Integrity Commission has quietly been accepting free legal advice on how to improve lobbying laws from registered lobbyists themselves, The Post has learned.
Law firm Bryan Cave has provided two attorneys to compare New York’s lobbying and ethics laws to laws in other states and help the commission develop recommendations to the Legislature by April 1, commission spokesman Walter Ayres said.
Commission executive director Herbert Teitelbaum is a former partner of Bryan Cave. According to his biography, he helped formulate the firm’s policy on pro bono – meaning free representation for the public service – and served on its pro bono committee.
Bryan Cave has lobbied the city and state extensively on New York City real estate issues, lobbying records how.
“You’ve got a fox-in-a-chicken coop problem here,” said a former member of the now-defunct state Lobbying Commission.
“There’s enough bright lawyers around this government who can develop regulations.”
The two lawyers, Rachel Barber-Schwartz and Evan Bolla, are working on the project with Florence Peterson, an adjunct professor at Fordham University who is coordinating the project.
Fordham has in-house lobbyists who are also registered with the commission.
The arrangement has raised eyebrows.
“It’s a glaring example of something that may seem to be appropriate to the person doing it, but may be deemed inappropriate by the people affected by it,” said David Grandeau, the former executive director of the Lobbying Commission.