Family Court development deal gets lawyer fired

A Philadelphia attorney was fired yesterday from the law firm where he worked for the past 35 years after allegations of a conflict of interest regarding a development deal for a new Family Court building.

Jeffrey Rotwitt, a partner at Obermayer, Rebmann, Maxwell & Hippel, represented both the court system and the owner of the land at 15th and Arch streets, Conshohocken developer Donald Pulver, the Inquirer reported.

Rotwitt, 59, has already received $1.1 million of the $3.9 million he was to pocket from the court system in his role as "tenant representative," the paper reported.

Meanwhile, his deal with Pulver reportedly netted Rotwitt nearly a half-million dollars from the courts.

"The management committee had no knowledge of Mr. Rotwitt's involvement as a developer of the proposed Philadelphia Family Court Facility until the [Inquirer story]," the firm said in a statement, promising to cooperate with any official investigation into the development.

"It was not a surprise based on all the publicity that's taken place over the last week," Kevin Feeley, Rotwitt's spokesman, said of his dismissal. "Mr. Rotwitt still maintains that his activities were not a secret and there was no conflict."

The development deal itself was killed by Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, who has overseen the controversial project, on Wednesday.