Six years after Julius S. Reich murdered his wife and four years after he admitted guilt, the former Scarsdale lawyer has been disbarred.
Reich was automatically disbarred in 2018 when he was convicted of a felony, a panel of five judges of the First Appellate Court, Manhattan, noted in a May 12 decision, but Reich also had failed to report his conviction, as required by the judiciary law. The court learned of the conviction from the attorney grievance committee for the Second Appellate Court, Brooklyn.
Reich’s “unexplained failure to report his conviction,” the court ruled, “may be relevant to any future application for reinstatement.”
The grisly killing and Reich’s and conviction were widely publicized.
He was working as a lawyer and accountant for WeiserMazars accounting firm in Manhattan and had worked as a partner for 20 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers. His wife, Robin Goldman, was a pediatrician with Montefiore Medical Group in the Bronx.
Reich had filed for divorce in 2015 but the couple remained living in the same house on Lincoln Road in Scarsdale.
On the morning of January 20, 2016, Reich entered an upstairs bathroom, stabbed Dr. Goldman 22 times with an 8-inch kitchen knife, went downstairs and called 911.
He directed Scarsdale police to the bathroom where they found Dr. Goldman, 58, in the shower.
Reich pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2018, in a plea deal where he agreed to 20 years in prison and five years of supervised release. The plea bargain avoided the possibility of a second degree murder conviction and imprisonment for 25 years to life.
Westchester Supreme Court Justice Barry E. Warhit also ordered Reich to have no involvement with his three adult children and grandchildren. “No contact with them, no letters of apology, no contact at all,” the judge said during sentencing.
Reich appealed the judgment, arguing that the sentencing he had agreed to was excessive. The state Court of Appeals rejected his argument.
Adam Reich, his son and the administrator of Dr. Goldman’s estate, sued Reich in 2019 for wrongful death and causing pain and suffering.
He argued that the divorce would have become final had she not been killed, and she would have received her share of marital assets.
“Julius Reich should not and cannot profit from his wrongdoing in causing the death of decedent Robin Goldman,” the complaint states.
Reich broadly denied the allegations in his answer to the complaint. Then he violated several court orders to appear for depositions and provide documents. When he did testify last year, appearing virtually from prison, he invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination 132 times.
Reich invoked the Fifth Amendment, Westchester Supreme Court Justice Joan B. Lefkowitz ruled last year, “without a good-faith belief in the need for such protection.”
The lawsuit is pending.
Reich, 68, is imprisoned at Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Comstock, New York. A parole hearing is scheduled for January 2033 and he could be released in March 2033, or remain incarcerated until January 2036, a few days before his 82nd birthday.
