I went down to Michael’s to lunch with Jonathan Capehart (see The List). Since we last spoke Jonathan has moved from the Editorial Board of the New York Daily News to an executive position of Hill & Knowlton one of the great old public relations firms. Heavy duty. Hill & Knowlton has 72 offices in 38 countries (19 here in the US) and they handle all kinds of communications projects and problems from corporate to marketing to public affairs to financial communications. They’re in Asia, in Canada, in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. And of course right here in New York.

Jonathan is a young man – 38 – and has had a stellar career since coming to New York out of college. He was the first man (I think I’m right about this) to work in an advisory capacity for Michael Bloomberg when he decided to run for office. Later he went to work for the Daily News sitting on the board that decides what to concentrate on editorially/news-wise. Perhaps because of his Bloomberg experience, he’s really connected in New York politics, and it’s obviously in his blood. Betsy Gotbaum refers to him as her “son.”

DPC and Jonathan Capehart

It’s always fascinating to me how people progress in New York. It’s such an aggressive city and so full of talent on the make that one can easily assume aggressive and talent are the two prerequisites. Oh, and brains too. Yes, brains. But not always; don’t kid yourself.

Jonathan is a gentleman. And a gentle man, at least from my experience. And clearly, with the brains too. Friendly and outgoing with a ready smile, he has a way of making his presence known, but not, not ever, in your face. Every time I’ve ever seen him, he’s impeccably dressed and wears clothes like one of the Best Dressed. He looks studious (don’t you think?) with the horn-rimmed glasses and the neat knot to his tie. But aside from that he’s just a friendly guy who does not flaunt his obvious special brain-power.

This was the first time we’d ever sat down alone together to chat. I did most of the talking – at least it seemed that way to me – mainly because I am a yakker and when there’s a willing listener, an “understanding” listener, then I’m usually on a roll. I realized later (after I’d shuttup for a moment) that another one of Jonathan’s talents is his ability to listen and his willingness to let another express him or herself.

I asked him why he left the Daily News to go into public relations since his position was so influential. He said it gave him more opportunity to work on projects that were personally interesting to him. One of those matters is the re-election of Michael Bloomberg.

Where there’s a Will there’s a War. Last evening I went out early to Fifth Avenue apartment of Diahn and Tom McGrath who were hosting a reception for Eve Rachel Markewich who is a candidate (Democratic) for New York County Surrogate Court Judge.

I am interested in politics although wary about writing about them, so unless the candidate is someone well-known and therefore an interesting personality to observe, I tend to shy away from political receptions. The McGraths, however, make the exception because they are friends and always wonderful hosts. Some of the most interesting dinner parties I’ve been to in New York have been at their house. They bring together a diverse, often heavy-hitting group, with varying and diverse points of view and there is conversation that includes, which is stimulating, provocative and even uplifting at times. In other words, opposing factions are civilized while disagreeing. So when they issue the invite, I go.

I must confess that I didn’t really know what a Surrogate Judge was/is. That’s how ignorant I am of the court system. I should have given it a thought, but I didn’t. So when I got there, the first thing I did was ask Tom McGrath who was (he’s retired) a major estate lawyer here in New York. He’s the one who once told me that Wills and Wealth do terrible things to people and that he’s seen the worst of it – people fighting over who gets what and how much and for whom, turning siblings, friends and parents into enemies. He’s known many instances where heirs to great wealth wasted vast sums of money fighting to prevent someone else from getting just a smidgen more than they. All of this happens in Surrogate Court.

Diahn McGrath

So when I asked Tom what Surrogate Court was, he said “Surrogate Court is about families. It really does matter who the judge is. It is where we go when we’ve lost our loved ones.”

And it can be exasperating, obviously. Tom told me about a client he had who passed away and although his financial assets had already been divided, he left his “tangible assets” (silver, porcelains, etc.) to be divided among his children according to their choices. A perfect way to start a family battle. “They even fought over the portrait of the grandmother whom they all hated,” he laughed in remembering the case.

After that horrendous experience, Tom finally came up with a solution that he advised every client to write into his or her will. And that was/is: “I leave all my tangible personal property to my (children or whomever) and if they can’t agree how to divide it, they pick a number out of a hat. The (child) with the highest number goes first, the second highest, second and third, third. Then, after the first choices, they reverse the order – third first, second second and first last. And when everything is chosen and divided, whoever is left without a final choice receives a sum of money equal to the last choices.”

Bartle Bull, a lawyer himself, was listening. He was familiar with Tom’s creation and said it was a brilliant solution. Bartle also told me that when he was starting out as a lawyer in the 1960s, Bobby Kennedy told him that Surrogate Court was the second most important court after the Court of Appeals in New York. Why? Because of the wealth that passes through its jurisdiction. “Decisions made in the Surrogate Court of New York,” Bartle said, “are watched and studied all over the country.”

After that conversation I went into the living room where Diahn introduced the candidate Eve Rachel Markewich. Ms. Markewich has been a lawyer for almost twenty years and a partner in her firm for the past ten. She told us a story relating how important the judge was. This was a case of a couple who were a same-sex partnership – two men – who owned property in joint tenancy. When one of them died, his will was not quite clear enough and so his mother made a claim on her son’s estate. This was in 1991.

The judge on the case, said Ms. Markewich, literally didn’t understand the matter. “Why,” he asked, “would a man leave his assets to his roommate and not his mother?”

Diahn McGrath and Eve Rachel Markewich

So the battle began. And, Ms. Markewich said, the assets were not all that great, comparatively — a little more than $200,000 at the time. The first judge on the case died and so it was referred to a second, and in time passed to another. Finally it came to a judge who said she wouldn’t let it go to trial and it was referred to a “referee” which is a retired

By this time – years had passed – the surviving partner (roommate), the original legatee, died and his estate passed on to a brother. Meanwhile, the mother of the predecessor survived. Finally through the “referee” the case was settled – more than thirteen years later! Lawyers fees and court costs had eaten up most of the estate. The right judge, according to Ms. Markewich, could have ended the battle early on. One of the guests, after hearing the story, commented that it sounded like Dicken’s Bleak House.

All very interesting. As I said, “Where there’s a will there’s a war.” The woods are full of these stories and many families have them. I asked Ms. Markewich later what could have been done at the outset to have avoided this problem. Answer: A clearer, tighter will. Something many of us (who are in the position requiring it) fail to do all the time.

A native New Yorker, Ms. Markewich is a graduate of the Dalton School, Harvard College, and Columbia Law. She has been litigating in the Surrogates' Courts her entire career, and is intimately familiar with the trial courts in New York State. She's also been rated "Most Highly Qualified" by the New York County independent judicial screening panel. Recognized as a person of integrity, she is widely respected in the community and is highly involved in community affairs and issues.

Ms. Markewich serves as Vice President of the Amputee Coalition of America, a national advocacy group for people with limb loss, a group with which she became involved, initially as a result of her own use of two artificial legs. She has also served as a member of the New York County Democratic Committee Judiciary Committee and for six years served as a Democratic District Leader on the West Side.

Meanwhile, voting for Eve Rachel Markewich will be done on Tuesday, September 13th in the Democratic Primary. She’s been endorsed by all three New York City congressmen as well as State Senator Tom Duane, Assemblymembers Bing, Gottfried and Wright and Councilmembers Breuer, Gerson, Martinez and Reed.

Darby Cartun, Suzanne Geiss Robbins and Marianne Wyman, hosted A Summer’s Evening Concert, at the home of Susan Bevan and Anthony Daddino overlooking the Greenwich, Connecticut harbor, to present The Russian National Orchestra Wind Quintet, which is back in the U.S. following their winning of the first prize at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition. The enchanting concert was held on the porch overlooking the gardens and the sailboats on the water as the afternoon drifted into twilight.

The handsome musicians: Andrey Shuty, clarinet; Maxim Orekhov, oboe, Maxim Rubtsov, flute; Alexey Serov, French Horn; and Andrey Snegirev, bassoon presented a concert of Eight Russian Folk Songs by Anatoly Liadov, Carmen Suite by Georges Bizet, Vocalise by Sergei Rachmaninoff and arranged by Andrey Shuty, Two Moods composed by Andrey Rubstov, and Flight of the Bumble Bee by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Susan Bevan, Maxim Rubtsov, and Barbara Brickman

“Without music I cannot breathe in life," Marianne Wyman said as she spoke of the Russian National Orchestra and its upcoming March 7, 2006 15th Anniversary Gala Dinner, which she is chairing, as well as its Tchaikovsky Festival, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, which will perform at Lincoln Center, March 5 through March 8.

The gala’s Honorary Chairs were Sophia Loren, whose son Carol Ponti Jr. often conducts the orchestra, and Martha Stewart. Charles Simonyi, the former Microsoft Chief Architect was the gala’s Honoree. The New York performances, which mark RNO's debut residency at Lincoln Center, are the centerpiece of the orchestra’s USA Tour featuring 23 concerts in 19 cities.

Sergei Markov, the RNO’s CEO introduced his musicians and charmed the lucky guests with tales of Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Volga, Lake Baikal and music. Among the guests, Edythe Holbrook, Stephen De Angelis, Joan Warburg, Pam and Bob Goergen, John Wyman, Joan and George Schiele. Gurnee and Marjorie Hart, Dr. William Ewald, Anne Semme, Elizabeth and Charles Bausman, Katherine Prokop, Andrea Pappas, Kathleen Burgweger, Edith and Roy Simpson, Jenn Peterson, Abby and Michael Pillari, Alexey Serov, Maxim Orekhov, David Webber and Barbara Brickman.

Under Markov’s leadership, the orchestra won a 2004 Grammy Award for their Peter and the Wolf recording conducted by Kent Nagano with Mikhail Gorbachev, Sophia Loren and Bill Clinton narrating.

The Wind Quintet comes to New York City next month to play at a private musicale in the home of Yue-Sai Kan and at the opening of The Guggenheim Museum’s Russia!, the most comprehensive and spectacular showing of Russian art ever sent to the United States. Ochen' zhdu! (“I can’t wait”).