Joshua Spivack offers this oped. A snippet: “In the current controversy, the state’s Court of Appeals removed Brooklyn Surrogate Court Judge Michael Feinberg after he was found to have given almost $8.5 million in estate fees to one of his law school buddies, Louis Rosenthal, without ever seeing paperwork showing that the money was earned. Feinberg also routinely granted Rosenthal commissions higher than the state norm, resulting in approximately $2 million in excessive charges – all paid out from money that was rightfully the property of the heirs. Feinberg’s behavior might be the most egregious example of Surrogate Court abuse, but it is hardly the only one. The Democratic boss of Queens, Thomas Manton, has been attacked for having his law firm profit off that borough’s Surrogate Court administrator’s office to the tune of $1 million.”