The Adams administration on Tuesday offered a spirited defense of their likely choice for the city’s top lawyer — even as the majority of the City Council said they will not give required approval.
At his weekly press briefing, Mayor Eric Adams’s chief counsel Lisa Zornberg praised Randy Mastro, who the mayor likely plans to nominate to replace Judge Sylvia Hinds-Radix as corporation counsel. That office represents the city, the mayor, the City Council, and multiple city agencies in litigation.
Hinds-Radix, a former associate justice of the New York State Appellate Division, is reportedly being pushed out after criticizing the mayor’s plan to have the city — via the Law Department she oversees — represent him in his sex assault case, according to the New York Post. (The mayor said Tuesday there is “no disagreement.”)
“I think you had a lot of comments already,” she told THE CITY last week when asked about her reported departure.
On Tuesday, the mayor stopped short of confirming he would put Mastro up for nomination, but his team fully defended the notorious lawyer, a former deputy mayor for Rudy Giuliani.
“Until an appointment is made, we won’t go into it,” Adams said right before Zornberg launched into a lengthy defense of Mastro, rattling off his accomplishments including serving on the board of various nonprofits. Mastro is known as a tough lawyer who takes on difficult cases, which Zornberg said is a pillar of American democracy.
“As someone who has taken hard cases, it can never be the case in the United States of America that lawyers are criticized and condemned for taking on hard cases for their clients,” she said.
“John Adams, one of the forefathers of this country in 1770, defended British officers accused of murder after the Boston Massacre,” said Zornberg. “He didn’t hesitate to take on that case because he believed in upholding the rule of law.”
She called Mastro “an incredibly top-notch, world-renowned lawyer.”
Playing Both Sides
Mastro is currently representing the state of New Jersey in a federal lawsuit against the city’s congestion pricing plan — in which the MTA is a defendant. He also represented former Gov. Chris Christie in the “Bridgegate” trial and oil giant Chevron in a case focused on pollution in Ecuador.
He’s also represented various wealthy Manhattanites in fights against homeless shelters, including on “Billionaires’ Row.” If he is nominated and hired, he would recuse himself from any cases that involve the city, the mayor’s team said.
All that makes him too controversial a choice for most of the City Council, which is required by the City Charter to approve whoever a mayor selects for the position.
On Monday, 34 of the 51 members signed on to a letter saying they would not vote yes for Mastro to lead the city Law Department, which is one of the largest legal offices in the country.
“The considered nomination of Randy Mastro as Corporation Counsel is an affront to the principles of public service we all hold dear,” the letter, from the Council’s Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus, read.
“Given his professional track record representing dubious clients, which has included bringing numerous lawsuits against the City of New York, Mastro is unfit to serve as the city’s chief lawyer.”
Mastro did not respond to a request for comment.
Civil Defense
Adams appointed Hinds-Radix as the city’s 81st corporation counsel as one of his first mayoral acts.
A longtime friend, she swore him in as mayor within the first minutes of Jan. 1, 2022 in Times Square. Her nomination was approved unanimously by the council in February of 2022.
Last month, she defended the city’s decision to have the Law Department represent the mayor in a civil sex assault suit, saying that she was obligated to do so because the alleged 1993 incident happened while Adams was an NYPD transit bureau employee.
City law requires the Law Department to defend only employees accused of acts performed during the discharge of their official duties that did not violate the rules and regulations of the agencies for which they work — giving the corporation counsel wide latitude to determine which employees the city chooses to represent in court.
Earlier this month, the Law Department also announced it would defend longtime Adams associate and current aide Tim Pearson in a separate sexual harassment lawsuit.
Asked Tuesday if a change in corporation counsel would affect the hundreds of ongoing cases, the mayor’s chief advisor, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, pointed to the many longtime lawyers working regardless of who’s in charge.
“When our administration is over and done, after the mayor’s administration is done, some of those members will remain. It’s something that just keeps going, it’s part of permanent government,” she said. “And they’re dedicated, so it’ll be fine.”