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McDermott Partner Bolsters Prosecution's Case at Astor Trial
New York Law Journal
May 27, 2009
Henry Christensen III, the former head of trusts and estates at Sullivan & Cromwell who represented Brooke Astor for more than 20 years, started his testimony as a prosecution witness Tuesday at the criminal fraud trial against Astor's son, Anthony Marshall.
Christensen, now a partner at McDermott, Emery & Will, bolstered the prosecution case by testifying that Astor, who died in August 2007 at age 105, had been "embarrassed" that in 1992 Marshall married his third wife, Charlene, who had been the wife of the minister at the church Astor attended while summering in Maine.
Under direct examination from prosecutor Elizabeth Loewy, Christensen acknowledged that some time after Sullivan & Cromwell represented Marshall in his divorce from his second wife, he began representing Marshall as well as Astor.
In her opening statement, Loewy argued that Christensen's judgment had been clouded by what she said was a conflict when he drafted a December 2003 codicil changing Astor's will in a way that benefitted Marshall.
Less than a month elapsed between the time Christensen supervised drafting that codicil for Astor, and one drafted by the lawyers Marshall retained to replace him in January 2004. The prosecution contends that the second codicil was the product of a criminal conspiracy that diverted millions from charity to Marshall.
Francis X. Morrissey, one of the lawyers retained by Marshall, is a co-defendant in the criminal conspiracy trial and also is charged with forgery.
G. Warren Whitaker, who was also retained by Marshall, and drafted two disputed codicils, is not charged with a crime and is expected to also testify as a prosecution witness.
Acting Justice A. Kirk Bartley Jr. ruled Tuesday that Alexander D. Forger, a former chairman of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, and New York State Bar president, could listen to Christensen's testimony.
The prosecution has said it may call Forger as an expert witness.
Christensen is not charged with any crime.
