Queens Defenders faces uncertain future after city cuts major contract

Queens Defenders will no longer be charged with providing criminal defense in Queens’ Criminal Court after the city said they were moving a contract with the organization over to a public defense group in Brooklyn. Eagle file photo by Walter Karling

By Jacob Kaye

Queens Defenders, the World’s Borough’s largest public defender organization, is facing an uncertain future after the city said on Wednesday that it no longer trusted the firm to carry out the promise of a $32 million contract to provide criminal defense to low-income New Yorkers in Queens.

The contract, which is made up of funds from New York City, New York State and the federal government, will now be managed by Brooklyn Defender Services after the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice said they had identified “red flags” while conducting a “financial and operational review” of the Queens organization.

The major shakeup of indigent defense in Queens comes nearly two months after Queens Defenders’ longtime, controversial executive director and CEO, Lori Zeno, was abruptly put on leave by the organization’s board of directors. Though the reasons behind Zeno’s ouster have yet to be made public, the board in January said that it had received “information” that prompted them to immediately put her on leave. In a letter first reported by the Eagle, the board told staff with complaints about their former boss to reach out to the New York attorney general’s whistleblower office, which fields information from insiders “with sensitive information about misdeeds by their employer.” Zeno, who founded the organization, was also barred from entering Queens Defenders’ offices or contacting the organization’s employees.

Though the city did not say whether or not the move was related to Zeno’s dismissal, a spokesperson for MOCJ said the agency was “taking a proactive approach with the Queens Defenders in order to ensure stability and minimize disruptions to the attorneys and cases involved.”

“Separately, we have initiated a financial and operational review after identifying red flags during our routine oversight, and we will take any action appropriate upon conclusion of the investigation,” the spokesperson added.

Anthony Martone, who was tapped to serve as Queens Defenders’ interim executive director in February, said in a statement that the organization was looking forward “to working closely with Brooklyn Defender Services and the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice to ensure continuity of representation and a smooth transition for Queens Defenders staff members.”

A spokesperson for Queens Defenders declined to comment further on Wednesday.

How the contract’s handover will play out on the ground has yet to be determined, according to sources familiar with the transition.

It’s unclear what role, if any, Queens Defenders’ attorneys and support staff will play in the new management of the contract. The organization’s paralegals, legal assistants and other support staffers just recently began unionizing, the Eagle reported earlier this week. The unionization began as soon as the organization was no longer being run by Zeno, who was accused of firing several attorneys after they embarked on a bruising but successful unionization effort of their own in 2021.

Deanna Logan, the director of MOCJ, said in a statement that “the most important thing is ensuring stability and minimizing disruptions to the constituents that rely on this representation and the hard-working attorneys employed."

“The best way to accomplish this was a proactive approach, in partnership with the Brooklyn Defenders Services,” Logan said. “We're thankful for their commitment — and that of the attorneys at the Queens Defenders — to providing uninterrupted representation to New Yorkers in need of advocacy.”

The Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys, the union that represents attorneys at Queens Defenders, said that they were not consulted prior to the contract’s transfer to Brooklyn Defenders.

“We are deeply disappointed that this decision was made without any input from our members and apparently without any regard for the efforts that QD employees have made to strive for an equitable and unified workplace that gets the best results for our clients,” the union said in a statement to the Eagle. “QD has a strong union contract, and whatever the future of our organization may be, the QD Union will fight to ensure that our benefits are protected, rights respected, and all members represented and not treated as an afterthought.”

The union also defended Martone, who they said had begun to reform the culture at Queens Defenders by demonstrating “a desire to work with the union to create a better work place for everyone.”

It was also unclear Wednesday if Queens Defenders would be allowed to continue providing contracted services under the several other contracts it holds with various city agencies. The organization, which has been operating in Queens for nearly 30 years, also has an over $9 million contract to provide representation for tenants facing eviction, according to city records.

According to tax records, Queens Defenders brought in a little more than $24 million in revenue in 2023. Nearly 99 percent of that revenue was from program services, like the services provided through the contract for criminal defense with the city.

Zeno, who remains on leave nearly two months after the board first disciplined her, was paid $434,791 by the organization in 2023, the highest salary among all executive directors of the major public defender groups in the city.

In a wide-ranging phone call on Wednesday, Zeno told the Eagle that she believed that the organization she founded wasn’t being stripped of its criminal defense contract not because of the allegations that had been made against her, but instead because of the management of the organization by those who took her place.

“It's unfortunate,” Zeno said. “We'll see what happens now to Queens Defenders that I'm not there. Hopefully, I'll be in Bali, living a very peaceful life, and I won't even need to know about it.”

“I've just spent 33 years of my life [building Queens Defenders] and watched somebody else take it down the drain in two months,” she added.

Update: This story was updated on Friday, March 28 with comment from the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys.