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The commission staff study urged more active pursuit of corrupt Mob lawyers, calling for extensive use of electronic surveillance and in some cases even - undercover agents to root out the crooked lawyers. A somewhat stepped-up attack has already begun. One catch was Philadelphia Lawyer Kevin Rankin, who discussed his work for a local Mob family and boasted of being like the consigliere in The Godfather. His listener was an FBI undercover agent posing as a corrupt Miami lawyer, and Rankin is now serving a 54-year term for drug conspiracy. Federal lawmen are also trying to nail lawyers who represent small-time gang members in order to protect higher-ups in the Mob. Lawyer William Cintolo, for instance, was indicted in December for conspiracy to obstruct justice after he allegedly was hired by the Angiulos, Boston's reputed top crime family, to represent a grand jury witness and persuade him not to testify.
Prosecutors are using one new ploy to hamper gangsters' ability to retain legal talent. They are invoking the forfeiture provisions of drug and racketeering laws to seize any attorney fees paid with illgotten gains. In a Colorado case last month, a federal judge disallowed such seizures, saying they violate a defendant's right to the legal representation of his choice. But last week in New York, another federal judge allowed prosecutors to subpoena information about the source of the fee paid to a lawyer in a narcotics case. Said Judge David Edelstein: "In the same manner that a defendant cannot obtain a Rolls-Royce with the fruits of a crime, he cannot be permitted to obtain the services of the Rolls-Royce of attorneys from these same tainted funds."
Incursive tactics such as the seizure of fees are opposed not just by lawyers who represent mobsters but by trial-attorney and civil liberties groups. They fear that such efforts threaten to undermine the rights of all criminal defendants. Judge Kaufman has a different concern, that unethical lawyers are part of a "disturbing trend within the profession." Says he: "Unquestioning advancement of a client's wishes at all costs is a destructive notion that undermines the foundations of the profession."