In General Credit Corp v. Guidice 2009 NY Slip Op 32418(U), Supreme Court, New York County, Decided 10/15/09, Justice Kornreich, we one reason that the public has less than stellar views of attorneys.  Here, evidence was produced to show that one attorney wrested control of the corporation and caused it to enter into adverse financial transactions that benefited the attorney, prepared agreements to give that attorney control of the board, obtained loans from a captive entity controlled by the attorney at interest rates above 20%, seized control of all the bank accounts, changed the locks in the office, fired the staff, interfered with its banking relationships and drove the company to file bankruptcy.

The case ended in a judgment of about $ 864,000 along with punitive damages (10x compensatory damages) in the amount of $ 1.5 million and additional punitive damages of $ 850,000 against others of the attorneys.