Business & Tech
Assemblyman Thiele Joins East End Law Firm
Twomey, Latham, Shea, Kelley, Dubin & Quartararo makes Fred Thiele a partner.
The South Fork’s representative in the New York State Assembly, Fred Thiele Jr., who is also an attorney, is packing up his solo law practice and joining the law firm of Twomey, Latham, Shea, Kelley, Dubin & Quartararo as its newest partner.
He will assume his new position July 1. Thiele said Tuesday that the work will be similar to his current practice, but unlike a solo practitioner he will have the resources of a large firm; the firm has 26 lawyers and more than 30 staffers.
The Riverhead-based law firm has additional offices in Southold, Hauppauge, Southampton and East Hampton, and Thiele, a lifelong resident of Sag Harbor, said there could be a Sag Harbor office coming in the future.
He said the notion of him joining the law firm has been floated for a while. "They came to me, and this was something that they, at various points of my career, had talked to me about." Now that his political career is established and his children are grown, he said, the time was right to take on the challenge.
In addition to serving in the Assembly, Thiele is the Sag Harbor Village attorney, a post he says he will stay in. Thiele said that while his work in the Assembly requires him to be in Albany three days a week for six months a year, from January through June, he can perform his duties for the village and practice privately. "It's very hard to be a sole practitioner period, and very hard in particular when you spend substantial time in Albany," Thiele said. Though, he added, it will be easier to take on more clients with the new firm sharing the work and responsibility.
Thiele expects to work in municipal law, environmental law, and will and estate planning, as well as land use, zoning, municipal law and real estate. He said he wants to get more involved in education law, after being involved with education through his work in the Assembly. He is the chairman of the Assembly Task Force on University/Industry Cooperation.
In the past, he has been the attorney for Southampton Town, Westhampton Beach Village and the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals and Planning Board. Before being elected to the Assembly in 1995, Thiele was a Suffolk County legislator and the Southampton Town supervisor. He currently serves as chair of the Southampton Town Independence Party.
Thiele said he had not yet made up his mind whether he will seek re-election in 2014. "I dont want to make it sound more ominous than it is," he said, explaining that he usually decides during the second session of a two-year term whether he wishes to continue.
In 2012, for the first time, Thiele was unopposed in his bid for re-election.
