City Comptroller John Liu’s office is taking a second look at the millions of dollars’ worth of legal work it doled out to state Sen. Jeff Klein’s firm to help the city fight lawsuits.
The move follows a report in yesterday’s Post that Klein, a Bronx Democrat, also had a financial interest in another law firm that specialized in suing the city.
“The Comptroller’s Office is currently conducting a review of the contracts,” said Michael Loughran, a spokesman for Liu.
Since 2006, the firm of Klein Calderoni & Santucci has received three contracts worth $2.25 million from the Comptroller’s Office to conduct so-called 50-h hearings — preliminary reviews of suits that help the city decide whether it should settle or fight.
Until a few months ago, Klein was also “of counsel” with the law office of William Gallina, a small firm located in the same Bronx building as his Senate district office.
Since 2007, Gallina and his associates filed at least 114 lawsuits against various city agencies, according to court records.
And Gallina said Klein’s law partner, Fred Santucci, was the one who had conducted 50-h hearings on his cases.
Klein has said he worked only on cases he brought into the firm and never did any work on suits against the city.