Since news of New York attorney and mother Catherine Kassenoff’s reported assisted suicide in Switzerland, her husband’s former employer—the law firm Greenberg Traurig—has been in the hot seat.
Hundreds of outraged people have taken to social media, urging the firm to fire Catherine’s husband Allan, a shareholder. They included multiple one-star Yelp reviews, all blasting the firm. One review said, “Greenberg Traurig’s association with Allan Kassenoff is an absolute disgrace and reflects poorly on their entire company.”
Late Sunday night, the law firm, which had already stated Allan was on a leave of absence, released a statement announcing his resignation.
In her final letter and social media posts, Catherine publicly blamed the New York family court system and her husband, Allan Kassenoff, for causing her to lose her home, money, job and custody of her daughters. The couple was in the middle of custody litigation that had gone on for four years and Catherine, recently diagnosed with a return of cancer, said she no longer had the strength to fight. (Ms. was the first to expose Catherine’s case in a 2021 article “Empty Home for the Holidays,” and published a follow-up after her reported death, “Remembering Catherine Kassenoff.”)
Greenberg Traurig’s June 11 statement reads:
“The firm has concluded its review of the situation to determine Allan Kassenoff’s status with the firm. Our primary obligation is to maintain and protect the core values and best interests of our firm, our clients, our lawyers and our professional staff. Allan has been on a short leave of absence and has now resigned from the firm, effective immediately.
“The firm is sensitive to the needs of the three children, the primary victims of the situation, and therefore will be creating a dedicated trust fund with an independent trustee for the sole benefit of these children, to be voluntarily funded by the lawyers and staff of our firm. We wish healing and privacy to the children during this very difficult situation.”
Many of Catherine’s supporters applauded the decision, but the victory is bittersweet. “It is sad, but no one helps us while we are alive,” said Elizabeth Harding Weinstein, Catherine’s friend and a court reform advocate who also lost custody of her children in a high net-worth battle.
When I interviewed Catherine in 2021, she repeatedly told me she didn’t understand why Greenberg Traurig was standing by her husband—especially since his sizable paycheck allowed him to continue weaponizing the courts against her. At one point, in the middle of fighting the extended custody battle, she ended up homeless, staying on friends’ couches and living out of her car. (She posted photos of this on Facebook.)
The firm’s pro bono website page says it provides free services in some cases because, “as lawyers, we are committed to the principle that all persons are entitled to equal access to justice.” Greenberg Traurig is also listed as a corporate partner of the organization Her Justice, a nonprofit organization that provides free legal help to women living in poverty in New York City. Ms. has reached out directly to the firm for comment.
It is sad, but no one helps us while we are alive.
Elizabeth Harding Weinstein
In her goodbye letter, Catherine singled out the firm as one of the ways her husband allegedly dominated their court case:
“The more I fought to show these materials to the public and to the Courts, the more I was punished for daring to make such accusations against a rich, white man and Greenberg Traurig shareholder. I had to get four different doctors to confirm that, in fact, I did not suffer from any mental illnesses. It was not enough, apparently, that I had no history of mental illness, and had been vetted for much of my adult life by both the state and federal governments when I worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York and Special Counsel to the Governor of New York and had never had any episodes or diagnoses of mental condition.
“Over the last 4 years, I was constantly proving and re-proving myself and being discredited and disbelieved by the courts over the man with the agenda to protect his false image, who was willing to lie to cover up the truth about himself, and who was willing to use his children to do so.”
According to the executor of her estate, Wayne Baker, Greenberg Traurig’s trust funds are separate from a recently launched GoFundMe page started for Catherine’s daughters by a friend.
Editor’s note: We have repeatedly reached out to Allan Kassenoff and his attorney Gus Dimopoulos to request an interview as part of our continuing coverage of this case but, to date, we have not heard back from them.
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