Escrow Accounts and Ethics: Key Issues in Handling Escrow Funds and Attorneys Serving as Escrow Agents

Mr. Ross concentrates his practice in attorney ethics. He is a former Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division of the Southern District of New York and also served as an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County. Mr. Ross has been an Adjunct Professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School since 1980 (where he teaches Fall and Spring Semester courses in Litigation Ethics). He has also taught a variety of trial practice and judicial administration courses as an Adjunct Associate Professor at Brooklyn Law School since 2005 (where he teaches year-round Fall, Spring and Summers courses in Professional Responsibility). In addition, in three and a half decades of teaching at Cardozo Law School, he has taught a variety of ethics, trial practice and judicial administration courses. Mr. Ross is a frequent lecturer and author on topics involving ethics, trial practice and criminal law for such organizations as the Practicing Law Institute, the Appellate Divisions, First and Second Departments, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the New York State Judicial Institute, the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, the New York State Bar Association, the New York County Lawyers’ Association, the New York State Association of Trial Lawyers and the New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers.

Ms. Whittingham is a former New York State Commissioner on Ethics and Lobbying in Government and a Referee for the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct. She is the principal of Whittingham Law, where she concentrates her practice on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility. Prior to private practice, Ms. Whittingham served as counsel at the Attorney Grievance Committee, First Judicial Department where she investigated and prosecuted a wide array of professional misconduct cases. She served as Staff Attorney at the Mental Hygiene Legal Services in the First Department; Judicial Intern to the Honorable Dolores K. Sloviter, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and the Honorable Milton Tingling, Supreme Court for the State of New York, New York County. Ms. Whittingham started her legal career in the Litigation Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s Office.