Albany Times Union Editorial

It’s an old and frustrating story, with no resolution in sight. Classic Albany, in other words.

It involves state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and his outside law practice. Mr. Silver, who holds one of the most powerful positions in state government, is also “of counsel” with the Manhattan firm of Weitz & Luxenberg, one of the state’s largest tort law firms. He maintains that his private law practice does not present any conflict of interest with his public responsibilities as a legislative leader. It’s difficult to refute him, because Mr. Silver has seen to it that legislators are required to disclose only the most cursory details of their outside income.

“I don’t think it’s a conflict,” Mr. Silver rather defensively told reporters five years ago. “How many times do you want to hear this?”

What we want to hear from Mr. Silver, of course, is just who his law clients are. Only then can the very legitimate question of whether his other job presents conflicts be answered once and for all. Only then will his steadfast advocacy for trial lawyers and his adamant opposition to tort reform be seen in the proper context.

Until then, though, we’re suspicious. The Legislature’s cavalier attitude about the ethics laws its members must adhere to, and the public’s right to know make that much inevitable.

Mr. Silver himself invites further skepticism with the disclosure by The New York Times last week that he’s lent at least $50,000 of his own money to a company that helps finance small law firms specializing in personal injury lawsuits.

To accept that there’s nothing improper about that arrangement requires knowing what law firms are getting financial help from that company, Counsel Financial of suburban Buffalo. Counsel itself is as tight-lipped as Mr. Silver tends to be about the nature of its business. Paul Cody, the president of Counsel, won’t say who his clients are.

The seven clients whose endorsements are listed on Counsel’s Web site include five New York firms. One of those clients, Martin Edelman, has been an active lobbyist in Albany on a variety of issues. He takes credit for drafting legislation passed in 2005 that established new guidelines for payments after wrongful death settlements.

Who else, we wonder, might be a client of Counsel and an active lobbyist in Albany? The same could be asked, of course, about clients of Mr. Silver or Weitz & Luxenberg.

Enough, then, of Mr. Silver asking how many times we want to hear what we don’t need to hear. Tell us instead, Mr. Speaker, what we need to know.

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