Banks and Kassem tapped to serve as city’s top attorneys

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani tapped Steve Banks, a former commissioner of the Department of Social Services under former Mayor Bill de Blasio as corporation counsel. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

By Jacob Kaye

Two attorneys with long careers in public service were tapped to join Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s administration on Tuesday.

Steve Banks, who previously served as the top attorney at the Legal Aid Society and as the commissioner of the Department of Social Services under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, was nominated by Mamdani to head up the city’s Law Department as corporation counsel. Ramzi Kassem, a professor at the CUNY School of Law, was picked to serve as Mamdani’s chief counsel and will represent the mayor’s side of City Hall when Mamdani takes office on Thursday.

During the same announcement, Mamdani also announced that Dr. Helen Arteaga, who currently serves as the CEO of Elmhurst Hospital, will serve as his deputy mayor of Health and Human Services.

While announcing his appointments on Tuesday, Mamdani also doubled down on a campaign commitment to reform the city’s Law Department, which has struggled to maintain the necessary number of attorneys to handle the city’s caseload. The mayor-elect said he plans to hire 200 more attorneys to work in the agency that represents the city and its employees in court and to turn the Law Department into a proactive agency that seeks to fight for the rights of New Yorkers in court.

“For decades, the Law Department had been on the front lines of many of the fights for equal rights across this country, but today it has been hollowed out,” Mamdani said from Elmhurst Hospital. “This is incredibly important for us in the work that we are seeking to do in this administration, that we have a corporation counsel and a Law Department that is not only staffed, but is also back on the front lines, as opposed to the defensive that we have seen over the last few years.”

Mamdani’s attorney picks are no strangers to public service.

Banks served in City Hall for eight years under de Blasio, working to reform the city’s shelter system. His service in the position was largely deemed a success when he left city government in 2021. He was praised for helping to bring down the city’s homeless population, but Banks also got flack for the city’s handling of homeless services contracts.

As commissioner, Banks also helped implement the city’s Right to Counsel program.

Should he be confirmed by the City Council, Banks will become the first Legal Aid attorney to serve as the city’s top lawyer.

Banks served as attorney-in-chief of the Legal Aid Society for a decade after working at the public defense organization for over 20 years. As Legal Aid’s chief, he oversaw the work of over 1,900 employees, a staff larger than the one at the Law Department he could soon be in charge of.

Banks said on Tuesday that his career gives him a unique perspective on the work of the Law Department.

“I litigated against the Law Department and for eight years, as a city commissioner, I was represented by the Law Department,” Banks said. “I know firsthand the key role that the staff of the Law Department can play in supporting the mayor-elect's vision and agenda for transformative change to help New Yorkers in every community of the city.”

Kassem, who will represent Mamdani in his official capacity as mayor, also has experience in government. He previously served as former President Joe Biden’s senior policy advisor, working on immigration court backlogs, immigration legislation and regulations, and other issues.

Kassem co-founded and currently co-directs CUNY Law’s Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility or CLEAR Project, which provides legal defense for students detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and represents clients targeted by national security surveillance programs.

“It is both a privilege and a duty to join the Mamdani administration’s fight for working New Yorkers and to stand up to the growing threats they face,” Kassem said in a statement. “As the federal government threatens to undermine civil rights and the rule of law, our city will be on the front lines. We will not allow fear, cruelty, or authoritarianism to take root in our city.”