Mamdani taps de Blasio alum, Trump critic as NYC’s top lawyer

By Karen Sloan

Dec 30 (Reuters) – Incoming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday named his pick to be the city’s top lawyer, tapping a former city official who resigned from prominent law firm Paul Weiss this year after it struck a controversial deal with President Donald Trump.

Mamdani at a press conference announced Steve Banks as corporation counsel, a position that oversees hundreds of city lawyers and represents New York in court.

Banks’ role is likely to be a busy one, given Mamdani’s ambitious agenda and his promises to defy Trump’s policies on immigration and other matters. The Democratic Socialist mayor-elect called Trump a despot during his November victory speech, while Trump, a Republican, has called Mamdani a communist.

Banks is the latest veteran of the Democratic Bill de Blasio administration to join the new mayor’s team. He led the city’s Department of Homeless Services while De Blasio was mayor, before joining Wall Street powerhouse Paul Weiss as its pro bono leader.

He resigned from the firm in April, after it pledged to devote $40 million in free legal services to causes aligned with the White House. In return, Trump withdrew an executive order punishing the firm over its connections to his perceived political enemies.

Banks, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday, said when he left Paul Weiss that he was turning his attention to representing a group that advocates for the homeless. He later told Reuters that pro bono work was being reshaped into a tool of political coercion under Trump, after eight more law firms cut similar deals with the president.

Banks led the Legal Aid Society, a non-profit that provides civil legal services to low-income New Yorkers, for a decade until 2014.

Mamdani is due to be sworn in as mayor on January 1. 

(Reporting by Karen Sloan; Editing by David Bario and Stephen Coates)