"Certainly, I think it should have been disclosed," said Larry D. Silver, an attorney for the Society Hill Civic Association in two 2007 cases in which Rotwitt represented Foxwoods. "I would have liked to have known."
And when one casino opponent tried to find out about the potential conflict by filing an information request with the courts, he was rebuffed with a reply from an administrator that there was no contract with Rotwitt - even though Rotwitt had been working for the court system and Castille for more than a year.
In an interview and a subsequent statement, Castille said that Rotwitt had not been his personal lawyer, and that Rotwitt's client had been the Philadelphia courts, not the Supreme Court.
"The answer is no, there was no conflict," Castille wrote. He said he was just one of seven justices and had written only one opinion that favored Foxwoods. In some other decisions, he sided with opponents of Foxwoods.
Foxwoods subsequently ran into other political and legal problems and is trying to stave off an attempt to cancel its license. Rotwitt and his law firm at the time - Obermayer, Rebmann, Maxwell & Hippel - have not worked for the Foxwoods partnership since 2008.
Although Rotwitt's name repeatedly appeared on legal briefs on behalf of Foxwoods that were sent to the Supreme Court, Castille said he made a point of not paying attention to the names of lawyers in cases.
"I don't want to know who the parties are," he said. "I just want to look at the law."
Rotwitt also has been an occasional golfing partner with Castille, according to both men, but Castille said that was also meaningless: "I play golf with tons of lawyers," he said.
