{"id":382443,"date":"2026-01-21T15:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T15:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/382443\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T15:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T15:48:08","slug":"zachary-zayas-former-law-clerk-in-alleged-conflict-of-interest-in-li-inheritance-dispute-working-for-nassau-law-firm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/382443\/","title":{"rendered":"Zachary Zayas, former law clerk in alleged conflict of interest in LI inheritance dispute, working for Nassau law firm"},"content":{"rendered":"

A law clerk whose relationship with a Uniondale attorney prompted conflict of interest allegations during a contentious inheritance dispute between two siblings has left his position with Queens Surrogate’s Court Judge Peter Kelly to work at an influential Nassau law firm.<\/p>\n

The Uniondale firm of Ruskin Moscou Faltischek P.C. announced earlier this month that Zachary Zayas, of Massapequa, was now an associate in their trusts and estates department.<\/p>\n

The move came less than a month after Newsday reported<\/a> that Kelly had failed to disclose for several months that Zayas, his principal law clerk and the son of Joseph Zayas, the\u00a0state court system\u2019s chief administrative judge, was living with attorney Cheryl Katz as she was arguing cases in his courtroom.<\/p>\n

Those cases included an inheritance dispute between Shannon Hynes, a Franklin Square-based matrimonial attorney and her brother Sean Hynes, a Bellerose-based NYPD detective.<\/p>\n

WHAT NEWSDAY FOUNDZachary Zayas, whose relationship with a Uniondale attorney sparked conflict of interest allegations during an\u00a0inheritance case between two siblings,\u00a0left his post as Queens Surrogate’s Court Judge Peter Kelly’s principal law clerk.Zayas,\u00a0the son of Joseph Zayas, the\u00a0state court system\u2019s chief administrative judge, is now an associate in Ruskin Moscou Faltischek’s\u00a0trusts and estates department.The move comes\u00a0less than a month after Newsday reported that Kelly\u00a0failed to immediately disclose that Zayas\u00a0was living with attorney Cheryl Katz as she was arguing cases in his courtroom’Step in the right direction’<\/p>\n

In early 2023, a Kelly ruling made Sean Hynes the sole executor of his father\u2019s roughly $2.1 million estate. The ruling also gave Sean Hynes the authority to use money from the estate to pay his attorneys, including Katz.\u00a0Court records show Sean Hynes paid nearly $423,000 to three law firms where Katz worked between 2020 and 2024.<\/p>\n

In its\u00a0Jan. 6 announcement<\/a>, Ruskin Moscou Faltischek said Zayas’\u00a0practice at the Uniondale firm would focuses on estate, trust and fiduciary litigation, including\u00a0Surrogate\u2019s Court matters.<\/p>\n

“His extensive experience in estate and fiduciary litigation, along with his background in professional liability defense and judicial clerkships, will be a tremendous asset to our clients and the firm,” said Adam Silvers, the firm’s managing partner.<\/p>\n

Neither Zayas nor Katz\u00a0responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

It is unclear what prompted Zayas’ departure from Kelly’s courtroom, where he’d worked since 2021,\u00a0or if it was connected to the Hynes’ case and its coverage in Newsday.<\/p>\n

Kelly, who now also doubles as a Queens Supreme Court justice,\u00a0and the Office of Court Administration did not respond to requests for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an interview Tuesday, Shannon Hynes described Zayas’ exit from Kelly’s courtroom\u00a0as “a step in the right direction toward promoting confidence in the justice system,” but added that she was “unsure if my case affected his employment.”<\/p>\n

Inheritance dispute<\/p>\n

The case centers on the estate of Richard Hynes of Bellerose \u2014 Shannon and Sean\u2019s father, who died on Christmas Day in 2019.<\/p>\n

The inheritance fight landed before Kelly, who named Sean Hynes the sole executor of his father\u2019s estate on Feb. 21, 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In May 2024, Shannon Hynes, suspicious about what she contends were one-sided rulings by Kelly, hired a private investigator to follow Katz, his brother\u2019s attorney.<\/p>\n

The investigator discovered Zayas and Katz were in a romantic relationship and sharing a home together in Massapequa. At the time, neither Zayas, Katz nor Kelly had disclosed the relationship to Shannon Hynes or her attorneys.<\/p>\n

But after Shannon Hynes\u2019 attorneys brought the relationship to the court, Kelly disclosed that he\u2019d been aware the two were living together since late 2023, court transcripts show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a sworn affidavit, Katz said the relationship was disclosed to Kelly shortly after it began in June 2023.<\/p>\n

Shannon Hynes said Zayas was in court for most conferences and appearances in the case.<\/p>\n

In May 2024, with most of the major issues already resolved, Kelly recused himself from the case, framing the decision as “discretionary” and adding that\u00a0Zayas had no decision-making authority or influence over the outcome of the case.<\/p>\n

Case moved to Staten Island<\/p>\n

In 2024, Shannon Hynes said she filed a complaint against Kelly with the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, which investigates allegations of wrongdoing by the judiciary.<\/p>\n

Commission officials have declined to comment while Kelly told Newsday that he “acted properly and in compliance with all governing rules and statutes.”<\/p>\n

The case\u00a0has since moved to Surrogate’s Court in Staten Island where Shannon Hynes said she’s\u00a0seeking to have her brother removed as executor and the attorney fees paid to Katz’s firm “scrutinized.”<\/p>\n

To date, she\u2019s been unsuccessful, with Staten Island Surrogate’s Court Judge Matthew Titone rejecting all of her motions.<\/p>\n

The case is now in the discovery phase and Titone has set a trial date of June 16.<\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/p>\n

\n\tRobert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A law clerk whose relationship with a Uniondale attorney prompted conflict of interest allegations during a contentious inheritance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,4176,9529,4174,4175,144922,144923,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-382443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-nassau","11":"tag-personal-finance","12":"tag-personalfinance","13":"tag-qs","14":"tag-state-and-local-courts","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}