If you’re a first-time homebuyer making a down payment, a seller waiting on the proceeds from a home sale or a family expecting settlement funds, you trust your attorney to safeguard your money in an escrow account. For many New Yorkers, that money represents years of savings — funds meant for a home, a fresh start or long-term security — not for misuse.

Yet far too often, clients become victims of theft when attorneys misappropriate funds from escrow accounts — special trust accounts in which lawyers are required to safeguard their clients’ money, most commonly during real estate transactions. Just last year, a former real estate attorney was sentenced to up to 10½ years in prison for stealing nearly $1.8 million from 32 clients over a three-year period. He did so by withholding sale proceeds and down payments that rightfully belonged to them.

The case was far from isolated. Since New York established the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection in 1982 — which reimburses clients who lose money or property due to a lawyer’s dishonest conduct — more than $112 million in stolen real estate escrow funds has been returned to victims. Clients deserve to make life-changing financial decisions without worrying about whether their money is safe.

That’s why I introduced legislation with Assemblyman Charles Lavine to establish a statewide Random Audit Compliance Program that would conduct periodic audits of law firms managing real estate escrow trust accounts.

The bill, S9129, is designed to strengthen protections for New Yorkers’ hard-earned funds, ensuring that client money is properly safeguarded and kept separate from attorneys’ personal or business finances.

The legislation would direct the chief administrator of the courts to establish the program within the Office of the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection. The chief administrator would also oversee the development of a software system to randomly select law firms for audit, giving every firm — regardless of size — an equal chance of review. Entities would be randomly selected for audits, but this wouldn’t preclude an audit for suspicious activity.

The bill also specifies which records would have to be produced, who would conduct the reviews, who could represent a firm, and the standards auditors would have to follow to ensure fairness and consistency. It would authorize the Lawyers’ Fund’s board of trustees to hire qualified auditors with appropriate credentials, while retaining flexibility to update those requirements as needed.

We cannot ignore the growing number of trust violations in New York. A 2025 report by the New York City Bar found that the Lawyers’ Fund paid 94 awards totaling $11.6 million in 2024 — a 31 percent increase in awards and a 90 percent increase in payouts from the previous year. The report further noted that real property escrow losses accounted for $9.9 million in awards, while theft of settlement proceeds accounted for an additional $415,000-plus. This growing pattern demands action to protect client funds before more damage is done.

This wouldn’t be the first random-audit program of its kind in the country. New Jersey has conducted random audits of attorney trust and business accounts since 1981 to ensure compliance with its recordkeeping rules. Despite having about one-fifth as many attorneys as New York, New Jersey paid just $1.1 million in client protection awards in 2024–25. Since the program began, the state has completed more than 18,000 audits, and only 4.5 percent have resulted in disciplinary action.

Several other states have adopted similar programs. In Connecticut, compliance improved dramatically, with the percentage of audits requiring no corrective action rising from 14 percent in 2017 to 30 percent in 2024. These programs show that random audits work, and it’s time for New York to do the same.

If implemented, this program would strengthen the fiduciary duty attorneys owe their clients, protecting the savings families work a lifetime to build. I am committed to fighting for its passage and working with my colleagues to get it done, so New Yorkers can have peace of mind that their hard-earned savings are protected.

First published in the Long Island Herald, March 2, 2026