NY District Attorney Gets Law Firm Political Money

The state’s most influential personal injury law firm continues to pour money into the campaign coffers of Kathleen M. Rice, the Nassau County district attorney, who is generally viewed as the front-runner in the attorney general’s race.

The firm, Weitz & Luxenberg, is one of the largest personal injury law firms, and it is closely watched in Albany because it employs Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Mr. Silver is the Legislature’s most powerful Democrat and a reliable defender of trial lawyers’ interests in the Capitol.

The New York Times previously reported that five of Weitz’s lawyers, including its two founding partners, contributed $236,698 to the Rice campaign. The cash continued to pour in during the first half of this year, according to campaign filings released earlier this month — more than $120,000.

Perry Weitz, one of the firm’s founding partners, donated $9,301 in the period, and his wife, Felicia, donated an additional $55,900. Arthur Luxenberg, the other founding partner, donated another $9,301. And Robert Gordon, another partner at the firm, donated $46,599.

Eric Phillips, a spokesman for the campaign, played down the significance of the contributions.

“At only 4 percent of what the district attorney has raised in the last six months, the firm’s contributions make up a very small portion of what has become the most vast, diverse and progressive network of financial supporters in this race,” he said.

The campaign has also emphasized that Mr. Weitz and Mr. Luxenberg are both Long Island residents who have known Ms. Rice for some time. But there is little doubt Ms. Rice has close ties to the firm; last year she hired Mr. Weitz’s son, Justin, to work as an assistant district attorney.

Other prominent donors to Ms. Rice in the first half of the year included Donald J. Trump ($25,000); Peter Angelos, the personal injury lawyer who owns the Baltimore Orioles ($25,000); and Joseph W. Belluck ($10,000) of Belluck & Fox, the law firm that employs Senator John L. Sampson, the Brooklyn Democrat who leads the Senate.

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