Allan Kassenoff out at Greenberg Traurig effective immediately

The embattled attorney, and accused wife abuser, has resigned effective immediately.

Screenshot from the website of Greenberg Traurig

The reverberations from Catherine Kassenoff’s suicide note continue to be felt.

Catherine Kassenoff announced on May 27, 2023, that she was going to go through with assisted suicide in Switzerland. Catherine said she was terminal with cancer, but she primarily blamed the brutal family court process for forcing her hand.

This is a story that ends with my own assisted death in Switzerland.  Its lead up has been published for years on Facebook, in Ms. Magazine and in other media.  The New York Court system is responsible for this outcome and should be held accountable for ruining the lives of my children, me, and so many other similarly-situated protective parents (mostly mothers) who have tried to stand up against abuse but were labeled "liars", "mentally ill" and then treated like criminals.  The reason the courts engaged in this horror, where they "temporarily" took away custody, my personal property, a home I owned and lived in, my dogs, my health, my career, and my dignity - for the last 4 years - was so that the nearly $ 4 million that Allan Kassenoff, my ex husband, had to spend to destroy me could be handed out to the court-appointed forensics, therapists, lawyers for the children and the attorney for Kassenoff.  It is a disgrace that persists under the cloak of secrecy and "off the record" court proceedings, secret forensic reports, and ex parte applications and orders.

I was a good and loving mother of three little girls, their primary caregiver, when Allan Kassenoff - with his attorney Gus Dimopoulos - filed for divorce in May 2019.  Many of you on this email knew me in that capacity.  I left a promising career trajectory to raise my girls to be violinists, tennis players, and to be happy, well-adjusted and empathic human beings.  But Allan was troubled.  In May 2019, he was the subject of abuse allegations made by two of my girls to their schools when one of them claimed he kicked her.  He had abused our family for years, especially during the years I was recovering from breast cancer (which I had twice already - in 2008 and again in 2017), some of which was captured on videos that I have posted on my public Facebook page and now make available in the Dropbox link below.  Rather than get help he needed, he retaliated with a divorce filing in which he accused me of "manipulating" our daughters to make up abuse that never happened.  

The more I fought to show these materials to the public and to the Courts, the more I was punished for daring to make such accusations against a rich, white man and Greenberg Traurig shareholder.  I had to get four different doctors to confirm that, in fact, I did not suffer from any mental illnesses.  It was not enough, apparently, that I had no history of mental illness, had been vetted for much of my adult life by both the state and federal governments when I worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York and Special Counsel to the Governor of New York, and had never had any episodes or diagnoses of mental condition.  Over the last 4 years, I was constantly proving and re-proving myself and being discredited and disbelieved by the courts over the man with the agenda to protect his false image, who was willing to lie to cover up the truth about himself, and who was willing to use his children to do so.  

Because the Courts of New York State are so invested in minimizing, suppressing and punishing valid claims of abuse, the Courts imposed "supervision" on me for saying that the girls were telling the truth about their father's abuse.  This supervision, which came at a cost to me of $2500/week at its height, was at the suggestion of a court-appointed forensic evaluator named Marc Abrams.  Abrams was removed in disgrace from the Panel of Forensic Custody Evaluators on August 24, 2021 for his gross misconduct - in my case and in others.  (See Dopbox link).  His rants on his public Facebook page, calling politicians "whores" and "prostitutes", demeaning women, were in full view while he conducted a so-called neutral forensic evaluation of me (and my family) as Special Counsel to a politician.  All of this was done with the knowledge of the Westchester County courts, specifically Judge Nancy Koba, Judge Lewis Lubell and Referee Irene Ratner.  See Dropbox Link.  Abrams asked sexually inappropriate questions of me and other women during interviews, asking Ms. Thomas even to "lie on top of him" during an evaluation.  (See the statement by Cecilia Thomas).  Abrams ignored my children's repeated pleas to live with me because their father was an abuser.  Abrams ignored my daughter's two attempts to flee her father's home to me by taxi.  On this extensive record, the Court nonetheless implemented his recommendations in full.  In fact, most disturbingly, the Court gave Abrams' deeply flawed report to the second forensic evaluator (Kathleen McKay) appointed to my case after Abrams was removed from my case and the Panel.  The Court asked McKay merely for an "updated" report, and McKay rubber-stamped Abrams' report.

Catherine released a Dropbox with thousands of documents from the case as well as several videos showing her ex-husband, Allan, being abusive.

Catherine Kassenoff from her Facebook page

Her ex-husband branded an abuser by the internet, is out of a job. His law firm recently posted the following on Facebook.

Allan Kassenoff, when he still had a webpage on the Greenberg Traurig website

Allan had previously used his law firm’s email to try and interfere with Catherine’s divorce attorney by contacting another lawyer in the same firm.

The announcement by Greenberg Traurig came after a flurry of media activity. The MSM globally picked up Catherine’s story.

Yesterday, the New York Post published an in-depth article which included a statement from Allan, his first since this all started.

Catherine Kassenoff faced off against hardened criminals and gang members as a federal prosecutor, and beat breast cancer twice, but said the broken New York family court system would be what killed her.

In a letter posted to Facebook on May 27, the Westchester, NY, mother of three announced she was scheduled to die by assisted suicide in Switzerland later that day.

“It is with a profound heartbreak … that I am writing my last post ever. Today, I will be ending my own life … In the last four years of my life I have woken up every day to a nightmare like no other,” she wrote in her public suicide note.

Catherine, 54 and an attorney who once served as special counsel to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, wrote that she’d recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer — but blamed her decision to die then, and by assisted suicide, on ongoing alleged abuse by her ex-husband and a messy

…

Allan issued a statement to The Post via his attorney Gus Dimopoulous. It reads, in part:

“At every stage of this four-year custody dispute, the court system has acted responsibly and thoroughly. Following a neutral forensic evaluator’s assessment, the court ordered an immediate order granting their father sole legal and physical custody. The court also issued an urgent order of protection against Ms. Kassenoff eliminating unsupervised interactions with the children based on what they observed when they were with their mother … While it is always difficult limiting a parent’s access to their children, given the circumstances of this case, it was found to be in the best interest of the children to take these steps urgently. The children have been in our client’s care for 3 ½ years and they are safe and healthy.”

The Post also examined the role of several court appointees who helped to corrupt the case, namely Marc Abrams.

She filed a complaint of misconduct against Marc T. Abrams, the custody evaluator who recommended that her ex-husband have sole custody of the girls, resulting in Abrams’ removal from the Mental Health Professional Certification Committee, State of New York, Appellate Division, Supreme Court, First, and Second Judicial Departments as a mental health professional.

During the proceedings, photos surfaced of the judge presiding over the case officiating Abrams’ wedding. Catherine called out this potential bias and conflict of interest, and Judge Lewis Lubell recused himself from the case.

Carol Most, the attorney for the children, was also dismissed from the case after Catherine sued her for misconduct.

The court also denied Most a large portion of the $270,000 she billed the Kassenoffs for services.

The conclusions of Most and Abrams went a long way toward Catherine being removed from her three children’s lives.

Next, The Daily Mail from England published a story.

Kassenoff has recently been diagnosed with her third round of cancer and this time it was terminal. In addition to the vicious disease, she allegedly was suffering abuse from her husband Allan, who she captured on video throwing tantrums, calling her a 'fat, old loser,' and who allegedly threatened to release a video of her in her underwear on YouTube. 

She released thousands of court documents, alongside the videos, in a down defunct Dropbox link in her Facebook farewell. 

'Perhaps if I had the physical endurance to keep going, I would. But with a new terminal health issue that will soon be limited my physical strength as well, and with no protection from the courts, I cannot keep running from Allan,' the late mother, whose death certificate will take up to six weeks to process, wrote. 

The mother-of-three said she was not strong enough to go through 'debilitating chemo, surgeries, and radiation again.' 

Kassenoff said she kept her health secrets under wraps because her husband would have 'tried that much harder to end my existence.' 

The Mirror, also from England, published a story about the case yesterday as well.

As part of the dispute, photos had emerged showing a potential bias and conflict of interest involving the judge presiding over Catherine's case and the custody evaluator.

Carol Most, the attorney for the children, was then dismissed from the case after Catherine sued her for misconduct.

Despite new information in Catherine's favour, a new forensic evaluator reaffirmed a previous report, leading to Catherine still being unable to see her children.

Allan Kassenoff, Catherine's ex-husband, issued a statement through his attorney, asserting that the court had awarded him sole custody based on safety concerns and that the children were safe and healthy in his care.

Meanwhile, videos surfaced on TikTok claiming to show Catherine's ex-husband's alleged verbal and emotional abuse towards her and their daughters.

Then, this morning, The Daily Mail issued an explosive follow up. This follow focuses on a March 2023, email which Allan sent to Catherine, blaming her for all the problems, while promising to fight to the end.

The Frank Report first broke news about the existence of this email.

The latest from that site focuses on several audio recordings, including one with a court appointee, which show how corrupt the case became.

Catherine Kassanoff : …Question. Here’s my question. Who do you think wrote the, did you ask her about that email? Did you ask her if she wrote the email?

Dr. Susan Adler: Yes, I did.

Catherine Kassanoff: What did she say?

Dr. Susan Adler: She said, ‘I just didn’t feel good. I was missing my mommy. And I don’t really feel that way. Sometimes I get upset.’

Catherine Kassanoff: Okay. Okay. I just want to make sure that, you know, it was discussed and that you established that she wrote it, because there’s a lot of question in this case about who wrote the email.

Dr. Susan Adler: It is discussed continuously. My radar is up, knowing that this was something that came up I right in some way without making it an obsession with her because I don’t want this to be something that our sessions are all about. But I touch base and check in, and I see how she’s feeling,

Catherine Kassanoff : Right?

Dr. Susan Adler: And yes, they’re sad they don’t see you. That is true. They are sad. But sometimes that’s what life deals us and we have to work it out. But we find, you know, ways of joining together with the people that we can when we can. They seem very—

Will this be a galvanizing moment for those fighting to reform family courts? I hope at least that the next powerful abusive person thinks twice before engaging in this kind of legal abuse, if for no other reason than not wanting to be the next Allan Kassenoff.

Update

The Frank Report has been leaked two audio/vidoes of Catherine Kasenoff being abusive. Find those here.