Mayor taps corp counsel nominee and appoints chief counsel amid legal woes

Mayor Eric Adams said on Tuesday that he was nominating Muriel Goode-Trufant to serve as the city’s corporation counsel. He also said that he had appointed Allison Stoddart to serve as his chief counsel. Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office

By Jacob Kaye

City Hall has been operating with two of its top lawyer positions vacant, even as a whirlwind of legal troubles has engulfed the mayor and his administration over the past several weeks.

But that may change soon, Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday.

The mayor, who was indicted on federal bribery and corruption charges last week, said on Tuesday that he would be moving to fill both City Hall’s corporation counsel and chief counsel positions, which have been vacant for four months and two weeks respectively.

Adams said that he would soon nominate the city’s current acting corporation counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant to serve in the role permanently. Before officially taking the position, Goode-Trufant would first have to be approved by the City Council, which threatened to reject the mayor’s first pick for the job, Randy Mastro, in September.

The mayor also said that he would be replacing Lisa Zornberg – his former chief counsel who abruptly resigned in mid-September after she reportedly grew frustrated with the mayor’s rejection of her legal advice regarding several ongoing probes into his administration – with Allison Stoddart, who has served as chief of staff in the Office of the Chief Counsel since Adams first took office.

Both Goode-Trufant’s nomination and Stoddart’s appointment come less than a week after federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment against Adams and alleged that for around a decade, the elected official accepted unreported travel benefits and illegal straw donations from Turkish officials in exchange for favors.

Though neither Goode-Trufant nor Stoddart would be tasked with representing the mayor in the criminal case, they may well be responsible for representing other members of his administration, several of whom are reportedly wrapped up in a number of other federal probes.

The two additions to the administration also come as lawmakers, political observers and New York City residents have expressed concern that the mayor will have difficulty focusing on running the city and finding qualified candidates to serve in his increasingly thinning administration.

In addition to losing the previous corporation counsel, Sylvia Hinds-Radix, in May, and Zornerberg in mid-September, Adams has also seen his former police commissioner, Edward Cabán, and top advisor, Timothy Pearson, resign. Schools Chancellor David Banks and Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan both announced their plans to resign before the end of the year in recent weeks, as well. With the exception of Vasan, all the officials to have announced their retirement or resignation have either had their phones seized or their homes searched by federal authorities.

Adams, speaking to reporters during his first weekly “off-topic” press conference since his arraignment in federal court last week, attempted to dispel the concerns that he would face challenges filling his administration on Tuesday.

“We have a deep bench,” Adams said. “Not only do we have a deep bench in the administration, but we have a deep bench in the city.”

“Many people have called as they see the [resignations and retirements] taking place, and they stated that, ‘Eric, I would like to come in and join the team,’” the mayor added.

Goode-Trufant and Stoddart would also join City Hall as it defends itself in court against a number of legal challenges to Adams’ policies and positions.

A day before Adams was indicted, the city took a blow in federal court when Judge Laura Swain ordered the Department of Correction to begin construction a proposal for a federal takeover of Rikers Island, the city’s jail complex that is the subject of ongoing civil rights litigation known as Nunez v. the City of New York.

Additionally, the Adams administration is in the middle of fighting off a lawsuit brought by the Legal Aid Society and the City Council over the administration’s refusal to enact a law passed by the council that expands access to the city’s housing voucher program.

Corporation counsel nominee Muriel Goode-Trufant. Photo via Law Department

Though a judge ruled in favor of the administration in August, claiming that the City Council overstepped its legal authority when it passed the law expanding access to the City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement program, the council and Legal Aid Society filed an appeal to the ruling on Tuesday, hours before the mayor announced the city’s new lawyers.

If confirmed by the council, Goode-Trufant would become the top lawyer in the city’s Law Department, which is primarily responsible for providing legal representation to the mayor’s office, the City Council, the public advocate’s office, the comptroller’s office and all city agencies in civil litigation.

Goode-Trufant has served in the Law Department for over three decades. She first began with the office in 1991 in the general litigation division, where she worked her way up to assistant chief. She became the department’s managing attorney in 2015 and, in 2023, was promoted to serve as first assistant corporation counsel.

Goode-Trufant’s nomination comes several weeks after Mastro, Adams’ first pick for the job, withdrew his name from consideration after a grueling 11-hour hearing before the City Council, which had long expressed their opposition to Mastro.

During the hearing, lawmakers questioned Mastro’s commitment to representing them, and not just Adams, and picked apart his resume in city government – he previously served as deputy mayor to Rudy Giuliani – and in the private sector, where he was known as a ruthless attorney.

Mastro’s appointment was always in question. Even before he was officially nominated for the post by Adams, well over half of the council said in a letter to the mayor that they would vote against confirming the longtime legal figure.

The council appeared to be more amenable to confirming Goode-Trufant on Tuesday.

“The council has worked constructively with interim Corporation Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant, and we appreciate her commitment to public service as a more than 30-year veteran of the Law Department,” a council spokesperson said. “We look forward to a thorough and transparent review of the nominee’s record during the public confirmation hearing.”

Stoddart, who will not require City Council confirmation, was appointed to chief counsel effective immediately on Tuesday.

As chief counsel, Stoddart will be charged with representing the mayor and his administration, as well as a number of agencies that fall under the city’s executive branch.

Stoddart was appointed to serve as chief of staff to the chief counsel by Adams during his first month in office after previously working at WilmerHale, a firm that currently represents Adams in his criminal legal case.

“I’ve always believed that the law and public service go hand-in-hand, and serving in the Office of the Chief Counsel to the mayor and City Hall has been a defining privilege of my career,” Stoddart said in a statement.

“I’ve been proud to serve as a chief of staff, and now, as chief counsel, to serve New York City,” she added. “In this role, I will continue to collaborate with the many committed public servants who work so hard every day to shape the future of our city. I look forward to continuing to work closely with newly-nominated Corporation Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant and the other members of the Law Department.”