NEW YORK — A maritime lawyer’s misconduct, including his flight from New York to avoid arrest on contempt charges, has disqualified him from sharing in a contingency fee for work performed prior to his disbarment, a New York federal bankruptcy judge has ruled.

Disbarred lawyer Kenneth Heller’s refusal to turn over files in a matter that ultimately was resolved with a $3.7 million settlement was “symptomatic” of a 24-year record of “utter contempt for the judicial system,” Bankruptcy Judge Stuart M. Bernstein wrote, quoting from an opinion of the state appellate court that disbarred Heller in 2004.

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