And those were for assignments that were given out earlier in the foreclosure crisis and that have already yielded fees. The newest appointments, with the billing to come, are filled with even more lawyers with ties to the powerful.

Image Mark D. Lebow Credit... PatrickMcMullen.com

Dominick Calderoni, a law partner of State Senator Jeffrey D. Klein, a Bronx Democrat, was handed six receiverships. William C. Thompson Sr., the father of William C. Thompson Jr., the former city comptroller and mayoral candidate, got six. Gregory C. Soumas, a member of the city’s Board of Elections, received two, though he said one property went into bankruptcy, ending his involvement.

When a building goes into foreclosure, a judge appoints a lawyer as a receiver who acts a property’s temporary landlord during the process. Receivers are entitled to fees that typically amount to 5 percent of a property’s revenues. Judges can award less than 5 percent, but usually do not.

The court-appointed lawyers in turn usually hire property managers and other lawyers to assist in overseeing the properties. The receivers do not pay out of their own pockets for the costs of the property managers and other lawyers. That money comes from the properties’ revenues. “This is why mortgagees hate foreclosures,” said Harold Shultz, a senior fellow at the Citizens Housing and Planning Council, a nonprofit research group. “During this process all these people are sucking money out of the building.”

With complaints about the quality of receivers growing, city officials said they were considering state legislation to require people seeking to become receivers to be vetted by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Receivers are now vetted only by the courts.

Not all receiverships come with high fees, or go to lawyers with ties to politicians.

Some lawyers are handed cash-poor and dilapidated buildings, and are hamstrung by a lack of resources. Some appointments can be low paying and time consuming.

Other lawyers, though, have won plum appointments. The receivership obtained by Mr. Lebow, the husband of Ms. Harris, the first deputy mayor, was one of the highest-paying in the city recently. In court papers, the judge did not explain why she gave Mr. Lebow the work.