politics
Lawsuit Challenges Kasowitz Firm’s Fee from Columbia Settlement That Added Antisemitism Coordinator
A Manhattan Supreme Court filing alleges Marc Kasowitz's firm retained more than $6.4 million from a Columbia University settlement reached earlier this year on behalf of 43 Jewish and Israeli students. The complaint says the firm withheld billing records and used a non-appealable distribution process. New York Post reported the suit was filed Sunday by attorney Susan Chana Lask.
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A lawsuit filed Sunday in Manhattan Supreme Court alleges that Marc Kasowitz's firm took more than $6.4 million from a settlement reached earlier this year with Columbia University. The complaint states the amount exceeded half the total payout to 43 Jewish and Israeli students who had accused the university of failing to protect them during anti-Israel protests after the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.
The suit claims Kasowitz refused repeated requests for detailed billing records and instead produced only a summary asserting more than 7,700 hours of work at a $2,500 hourly rate for Kasowitz. It further alleges the firm never supplied the underlying invoices and that the case settled before depositions or formal discovery took place.
Plaintiffs were told a third party would cover legal fees and were given five days over the Christmas holiday to sign releases, according to the complaint.
Individual awards ranged from $34,000 to $300,000, with one student receiving nearly nine times as much as another through a secretive non-appealable allocation process. Students who declined to sign were told they would have to proceed without the firm's representation, the filing states.
Noah Miller, who graduated from Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation in 2025, and Miles Rubin, a 31-year-old Columbia graduate and former Israel Defense Force reservist, are among the named plaintiffs.
Susan Chana Lask filed the suit on the students' behalf. Kasowitz LLP said in a statement that the settlement secured historic gains including appointment of a Title VI coordinator and consideration of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, and described the new claims as gross misrepresentations.
