{"id":528429,"date":"2026-07-06T20:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T20:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/528429\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T20:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T20:31:10","slug":"lawyer-for-columbia-universitys-jewish-students-netted-6-4-million-payday-while-preying-on-own-clients-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/528429\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawyer for Columbia University’s Jewish students netted $6.4 million payday while preying on own clients: lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

A high-profile lawyer who became one of the nation\u2019s most prominent advocates for Jewish college students after Oct. 7<\/a> netted a whopping $6.4 million payday from a settlement with Columbia University \u2014 by preying on his own clients, a shocking new lawsuit claims.<\/p>\n

Marc Kasowitz\u2019s firm had represented 43 Jewish and Israeli students who alleged Columbia failed to protect them<\/a> during the violent anti-Israel protests and encampments that engulfed the Ivy League campus in Manhattan after the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks on Israel.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs said that at first, they were thrilled to be repped by Kasowitz, a veteran Manhattan litigator who was the legal face of a national campaign against campus antisemitism.<\/a><\/p>\n

Attorney Marc Kasowitz\u2019s law firm preyed on the Columbia University students it represented in the aftermath of antisemitic protests on campus, according to a lawsuit. Erik Thomas for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Kasowitz rode in on his white horse and was like, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re gonna fix this and make this right,\u2019 I was like, \u2018Hell, yeah,\u2019 \u201d said Miles Rubin, a 31-year-old Columbia graduate and former Israel Defense Force reservist whose friends were killed during Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7 assault, to The Post.<\/p>\n

Kasowitz\u2019s firm eventually reached a confidential mega-settlement with Columbia over the students\u2019 accusations earlier this year, according to the new lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Sunday.<\/p>\n

But Kasowitz then\u00a0allegedly\u00a0refused to give the plaintiffs his firm\u2019s billing records from their case, while his cut totaled\u00a0more than $6.4 million \u2014 well over half the settlement\u2019s total payout, court documents\u00a0claimed.<\/p>\n

The top lawyer also\u00a0allegedly\u00a0distributed the remaining settlement proceeds through a secretive non-appealable process and threatened that students who refused to sign the deal would have to proceed without his firm\u2019s representation, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaintiffs, all young students, had already endured harrowing antisemitic harassment on campus<\/a> during the historic unrest following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, but never expected to be taken advantage of by the very lawyers they trusted to protect them,\u201d the new suit alleges.<\/p>\n

Columbia graduate Miles Rubin claimed that Kasowitz used the Jewish students\u2019 lawsuit as his \u201cown personal piggy bank.\u201d Jonathan Alcorn for NY Post<\/p>\n

A disgusted Rubin told The Post, \u201cLittle did I know he was lining his own pockets while touting himself as a hero.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s claiming to be the one defending the Jews, and he\u2019s just using it as his own personal piggy bank. \u2026 It\u2019s insane. You can\u2019t even make it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the new lawsuit, the student plaintiffs were told a third party would cover their legal fees, then were given just five days over the Christmas holiday to sign sweeping releases of their claims.<\/p>\n

The Post\u2019s cover on the chaos at Columbia University in 2024.<\/p>\n

Only after signing did many learn how much they would actually receive \u2014 awards that ultimately ranged from $34,000 to $300,000 \u2014 leaving them with no opportunity to reject the settlement or challenge the firm\u2019s allocation of the money, their suit\u00a0alleges.<\/p>\n

The complaint alleges\u00a0that the remaining settlement funds were divided through a secretive, non-appealable process that offered no explanation for why one student received nearly nine times as much as another.<\/p>\n

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The lawsuit also challenges\u00a0the firm\u2019s billing records, alleging Kasowitz refused repeated requests for detailed invoices before eventually producing only a summary claiming more than 7,700 hours of legal work and listing his own billing rate at $2,500 an hour.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs contend\u00a0in their suit that the firm never produced the underlying bills supporting its more than $6.4 million fee.<\/p>\n

Columbia graduate Noah Miller told The Post he was treated like a \u201cpawn to Kasowitz\u201d instead of a plaintiff. James Keivom for NY Post<\/p>\n

They\u00a0allege\u00a0in their suit that the firm\u2019s related work hours and fees were \u201cinflated and false,\u201d noting the Columbia case settled before depositions or formal discovery.<\/p>\n

Noah Miller, a plaintiff who graduated from Columbia\u2019s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation in 2025, said he trusted the firm\u2019s assurances that someone else would pay the legal bills.<\/p>\n

\u201cI signed a retainer that said that a third party was paying for everything,\u201d Miller, 28,\u00a0claimed to\u00a0The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized that I was a pawn to Kasowitz rather than an actual plaintiff. \u2026 The entire time I was deceived\u00a0throughout the entire process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anti-Israel protesters seen on Columbia\u2019s campus on April 22, 2024. James Keivom for NY Post<\/p>\n

Lawyer Susan Chana Lask, who filed the new lawsuit against Kasowitz and his firm on behalf of the students, said the case boils down to a simple proposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese students got suckered in,\u201d Lask told The Post. \u201cThe retainer said there would be no legal fees. Then they signed away all of their claims before they even knew what they were getting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lask also blasted the firm\u2019s claimed billing records,\u00a0claiming\u00a0no court overseeing a civil rights case would approve rates as high as those claimed by Kasowitz.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf any court sees this, and they will, there is no court that I believe would allow $2,500 an hour,\u201d said Lask, a veteran civil rights litigator who has argued landmark civil rights cases in both the US Supreme Court and the Second Circuit.<\/p>\n

Attorney Susan Chana Lask (right) is representing the students in the new lawsuit against Kasowitz. James Keivom for NY Post<\/p>\n

Kasowitz emerged as one of the country\u2019s most recognizable lawyers representing Jewish students after the Oct. 7 attacks, filing headline-grabbing lawsuits against Columbia, Harvard, Penn and NYU while accusing the elite universities of allowing antisemitism to flourish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The veteran Manhattan litigator also served for years as one of President Trump\u2019s outside lawyers and has frequently appeared alongside administration officials and Jewish advocacy groups as the legal face of the campaign against campus antisemitism.<\/p>\n

His law firm claimed the new suit is full of falsities and \u201cgross misrepresentations.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe settlement that Kasowitz LLP achieved at Columbia University secured historic gains and protections for Jewish and Israeli students including, among many other things, the appointment of a Title VI coordinator and consideration of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism,\u201d a spokesperson for Kasowitz LLP said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a shame that a small handful of students who signed releases and fully accepted all the benefits and protections of that historic settlement are now signing onto a public filing prepared by other counsel which is riddled with gross misrepresentations and false claims.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit is not the first time Kasowitz and his firm have faced accusations over their legal practices.<\/p>\n

Former Kasowitz partner Eric Herschmann sued the firm last year, accusing Kasowitz of concealing the company\u2019s financial condition, breaching fiduciary duties and misleading partners about its finances \u2014allegations he says cost him millions of dollars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Years earlier, insurance company Patriot National sued Kasowitz in Florida, accusing the firm of malpractice and fraudulent billing practices, including excessive and duplicative legal fees.<\/p>\n

Kasowitz denied those allegations and separately sued Patriot in New York seeking more than $1 million in allegedly unpaid legal bills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A high-profile lawyer who became one of the nation\u2019s most prominent advocates for Jewish college students after Oct.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,14648,782,6947,85,46,4675,44268,43,226],"class_list":["post-528429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-antisemitism","tag-columbia-university","tag-courts","tag-exclusive","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-lawsuits","tag-metro","tag-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}