One among New York’s prime bankruptcy attorneys Jonathan Pasternak has obtained a three-year suspension from practising regulation in New York’s Southern District Court docket.
Pasternak, of the regulation agency Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, was suspended by the U.S. District Court docket of New York’s Southern District, associated to receiving $260,000 in undisclosed funds from controversial actual property investor Sam Sprei throughout a chapter case.
Pasternak admitted to utilizing many of the proceeds from Sprei to buy a home.
Pasternak is a go-to chapter legal professional for mid-market dealmakers. His previous shoppers included entities tied to Yitzhak Tessler, Jeff Simpson of Arch Companies and Steven Ostad.
Pasternak was working for the regulation agency DelBello Donnellan Weingarten Smart & Wiederkehr on the time of the incidents resulting in his suspension. He joined Davidoff Hutcher & Citron in 2019.
Regardless of the suspension, Pasternak stays employed at Davidoff Hutcher & Citron and is allowed to observe in different courts.
“The entire occasions occurred properly earlier than he was employed with us,” stated Larry Hutcher, a founding associate of Davidoff Hutcher & Citron. “There was no query about his integrity with us.”
Hutcher famous that Pasternak is a “good lawyer” who “made one mistake” in a multi-decade profession.
On the heart of Pasternak’s troubles is a contentious chapter of a medical workplace property at 261 East 78th Road, in keeping with an opinion issued by a grievances committee for New York’s Southern District.
The proprietor of the property, Lee Moncho, employed Pasternak as his legal professional to place the property into chapter 11 after it confronted foreclosures from its lender MB Monetary.
Throughout that course of, Pasternak prompt to Moncho that he attain out to Sprei about serving because the funder of the chapter plan. By early 2014, Moncho’s chapter plan was accepted by the courtroom. The property was offered to an organization majority owned by Sprei.
However Pasternak by no means disclosed to his consumer or the courtroom about his different offers with Sprei.
Sprei had beforehand supplied to pay Pasternak a finder’s charge for chapter offers. Within the case of the 261 East 78th Road chapter, Sprei would additionally pay Pasternak after reaching sure milestones within the chapter course of. This included the courtroom’s approval of the chapter plan.
Between September 2013 and February 2014, Sprei despatched over 4 funds to Pasternak totaling $260,000.
Sprei made his largest fee when the chapter plan was confirmed by the courtroom on February 28, 2014. On that day, Sprei hand-delivered a $200,000 examine to Pasternak, in keeping with the grievances committee.
For years, Pasternak by no means disclosed these funds to his consumer Moncho, his regulation agency, or to the chapter courtroom, the U.S. trustee’s workplace or the IRS, in keeping with the Grievance Committee.
Moncho filed a malpractice go well with in opposition to Pasternak and others in 2017, claiming Pasternak negligently launched him and inspired him to do enterprise with Sprei and his enterprise associate Chaim Miller.
A 12 months later, an ethics counsel for Pasternak’s regulation agency DelBello Donnellan Weingarten Smart & Wiederkehr carried out an inside investigation and despatched a letter to the chapter choose admitting Pasternak accepted a $25,000 fee.
However Pasternak was much less forthcoming in regards to the different funds, in keeping with the grievance committee. He had claimed his counsel disclosed the $200,000 fee to the U.S. Trustee in 2018, however the trustee overseeing the chapter denied that Pasternak’s counsel ever made the disclosure.
The grievance committee claims Pasternak solely disclosed the $200,000 fee when the fee got here to gentle in the course of the discovery course of as a part of the lawsuit introduced by Moncho.
Pasternak submitted a declaration on November 7, 2025, admitting to wrongdoing and taking duty for violating the courtroom’s guidelines. He consented to the three-year suspension.
Pasternak’s suspension begins on February 9. He didn’t return a request for remark. An legal professional for Sprei additionally didn’t return a request for remark.
For the higher a part of a decade, Sprei and his former associate Chaim Miller turned recognized for the prolonged authorized battles with collectors and traders. Sprei was tasked with discovering offers for Miller, however now he seems to be on his personal. In August 2024, Sprei purchased a 41-unit rental property from Madison Realty Capital.
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