Leland L. Greene, Esq.
585 Stewart Ave
Suite 705
Garden City, NY 11530
[Tel]  516-746-3800 [Fax]  516-222-6577 
lgreenelaw@aol.com                                   

   Lee Greene has been practicing law for more than 30 years and has litigated matters of varied descriptions and complexities, both civil and criminal, in State and Federal trial and appellate courts.   He has was a consumer advocate even before the term consumer advocate became popular.  In 1979, he was part of a team that commenced a class action on behalf of approximately 50,000 bond holders who had purchased bonds from the State of Washington which was constructing two nuclear power plants.  After several years of construction, the state terminated the project leaving nearly $7.4 Billion in unpaid bonds.   Although brought in the Superior Court of King County in Seattle, was later settled as part of a larger action in the federal court Hoffer v. State of Washington, 110 Wash.2d 415, 755 P.2d 781 (1988).    

    In addition to being admitted to practice law in New York (1973), he is admitted before the federal courts including  the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York; and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second and Fourth Circuits; and, the United States Supreme Court.  Lee has also been admitted to practice, in specific cases (called "pro hac vice") before state courts in Georgia, Florida, Indiana and Washington and federal courts in South Carolina, the Western District of Kentucky and the Southern District of Florida (Miami Division). He is the principal of the Law Office of Leland L. Greene located in Garden City, New York.

     Prior to the private practice of law, Lee served as a law Clerk to four judges including Hon. Edward J. Greenfield (Ret.) and Hon. Max Bloom (Dec.) both in the Supreme Court, New York County. In that capacity, he had occasion to review many complex commercial cases and class actions. See, e.g. Gilman v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, 93 Misc. 2d 941, 404 N.Y.S.2d 258, 261 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. Co. 1978).

     Lee’s experience includes numerous class action cases involving financial institutions or insurance companies where the lender overchanged the borrower or the insurance company underpaid the inurance beneficiary.  These cases include:

     Bauer v. Mellon Mortgage Corp., where the lender continued to charge the borrower for private mortgage insurance despite the fact that the state insurance law required that the insurance be dropped once the borrower had paid a threshhold amount (178 Misc.2d 234, 680 N.Y.S.2d 397 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. Cty. 1998), aff'd in part sub nom., Walts v. First Union Mortgage Corp., 259 A.D.2d 322, 686 N.Y.S.2d 428 (1st Dep't 1999), appeal dismissed in part, denied in part, 94 N.Y.2d 795, 722 N.E.2d 504,  700 N.Y.S.2d  424 [1999]):

      Crutchfield v. UNUM Life Ins. Co. of America, where a life insurance company which was required to pay post-mortem interest paid less than the amounts required.  This national class action was ultimately settled when the defendant agreed to make payments to members of the class (Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia) (class certification  order upheld, UNUM Life Ins. Co. of America v. Crutchfield, 256 Ga.App. 582, 568 S.E.2d 767 [2002]). 

       Massingale v. The Money Store, a case where the defendant had used an improper calculation of interest on borrowers mortgage loans.  This national class action brought in federal court in Anderson, South Carolina, was settled when the defendant agreed to make payments to the members of the class (Civ. No. 8-99-1988-13 (D.S.C. 1999) (two orders, dated January 24, 2000 and June 8, 2000), permission to appeal under Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(f) denied May 12, 2000 (Docket No. 00-610, 4th Cir.) and November 27, 2000 (Docket No. 00-688, 4th Cir.).

      Negrin v. Norwest Mortgage,   Lee was co-lead counsel in four other similar cases including is officially reported at 263 A.D.2d 39, 700 N.Y.S.2d 184 (2d Dep’t 1999), a case in which Lee became co-lead counsel after it was commenced involved the improper charging of a fee for providing a payoff letter to a mortgage borrower. Lee and his co-counsel were able to have the defendant offer payments to all members of the class. Negrin.  Lee was co-lead counsel in four other similar cases:  Flachs v. Advanta Mortgage Corp. USA, Stewart Title Insurance Co. and Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Co.,(Nassau County NY Supreme Court, Index No. 000214/00) see www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3898/is_200012/ai_n8914692 ; Chiatar v. Chase Manhattan Mortgage Corp. (Queens Supreme Court Index No. 18419/00); Cruise v. Option One Mortgage Corporation, (Queens County Supreme Court, Index No. 27384/03); Dowd v. Alliance Mortgage Company, __A.D.3d ___, ___N.Y.S.2d ___ 2006 WL 2691821 (2d Dep’t, 2006) this case is still being actively litigated.      In addition to these four cases, Lee has had significant experience in prosecuting class action cases involving mortgage servicing issues. Lee has been co-lead counsel in litigation involving unlawful business practices such as inflated mortgage escrow deposits, inflated interest charges on mortgages and predatory lending practices. These cases include Murphy v. Dime Savings Bank of New York, No. 012712/93 (Queens County NY Supreme Court 1993); Dinko v. Emigrant Savings Bank, No. 110874/94 (New York County Supreme Court 1994); Lauria v. Apple Bank for Savings, No. 122713/97 (New York County Supreme Court 1997);  Friend v. Ridgewood Savings Bank, No. 98 C 436 (N.D. Ill. 1999); Sabbatino v. Greenpoint Savings Bank, No. 97 C 6202 (N.D. Ill. 1999); and predatory lending practices: Hall v. Moneyline Money Centers, Inc. and Altegra Credit Company, No. CV 95-776 (E.D.N.Y. 1995).

     Lee has also been co-counsel in cases against four title insurance companies: Commonwealth Land Title Company, Stewart Title, Fidelity National Title Insurance Company of New York and First American Title Company in cases where it was alleged that the title company had charged for a service that it did not perform. In each of these cases, the cases were settled with the title company offering full refunds to each member of the class.

     With regard to class action cases, Mr. Greene will ordinarily work on a contingent fee basis with the plaintiffs whereby counsel have agreed that plaintiffs will have no obligation for attorneys fees absent a judgment for the class. Often, the retainer with the plaintiff will provide counsel will agree to advance the costs associated with the case to the extent permitted by law. In the Cruise and Mediatore cases we were able to negotiate settlements where the defendant paid counsel fees separately and not out of the common fund payable to the class.