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Politics & Government

Two Lawyers Vie for Quogue Village Justice Seat

Two trustees are also seeking re-election.

Two attorneys, Alan Lazarescu and Leonard Lato, are vying for the position vacated by Kittric Motz in the only contested race in the municipality this year.

On the same ballot, village trustees Randy Cardo and Edward Necarsulmer III are both running unopposed for their seats on the board.

Terms for village justice and trustees are two years and Quogue voters can cast their ballot on Friday in the Quogue Fire House on Jessup Avenue from noon to 9 p.m.

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Alan Lazarescu

Alan Lazarescu, former chief counsel and vice president of Metropolitan Life Insurance in Manhattan, is familiar with the inner workings of Quogue, having served on various village boards and as prosecuting attorney since his move to the East End as a full-time resident in 2001.

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The Bronx native has served as prosecuting attorney since October 2004, and in that role he handles Quogue code violations. From 2001 to 2006, Lazarescu was a member of the village’s design review board, and then he became a member of the planning board for about one year. In 2007 he became chairman of the board, a position he held until June 2010.  

In his spare time, Lazarescu volunteers at the , taking on statistical analysis work and other specialized projects.

As an attorney, Lazarescu tried $3 billion cases, and spent time in Arkansas litigating a suit against Rose Law Firm, of which current Secretary of State Hilary Clinton was a partner at the time. Lazarescu also served as adjunct professor at his law school alma mater, St. John’s University in Queens, from 1981 to 1993.

Leonard Lato

Criminal attorney Leonard Lato is looking to apply the skills he developed as an assistant district attorney and assistant United States attorney at the Quogue Village Justice Court.

Lato, who has been involved in high-profile suits like the Marty Tankleff case, has practiced law for 25 years in the Eastern District federal courts in Brooklyn and Islip and under Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota as chief of the insurance crimes bureau.

Now, Lato has his own Central Islip-based practice, Lato & Baker, and is throwing his hat in the ring for village justice because he likes Quogue and thinks the job “would be interesting.” Lato plans to keep business running at Lato & Baker while he works part-time as Quogue Village Justice.

The Brooklyn native has lived full-time in Quogue since 1995 and is a law school graduate of St. John's University in Queens. Lato is a benefactor of the .  

Some of Lato’s high-profile cases include prosecuting a New York chapter of the Pagans Outlaw Motorcycle Club and a New Jersey doctor who planted a rat tail in his son’s McDonald’s French fries, a scam to try to bilk the fast food restaurant out of $5 million.

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