Council questions mayor’s corp counsel nominee

Steven Banks at his confirmation hearing before the City Council Committee on Rules, Privileges, Elections, Standards & Ethics. Photo by John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit

By Noah Powelson

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pick to lead the Law Department faced the City Council on Wednesday, and received a mix of praise and concern as the legacy of the previous administration’s corporation counsel pick remained fresh in councilmembers' minds.

At a City Council Committee on Rules, Privileges, Elections, Standards & Ethics hearing, Steven Banks faced the City Council, which is required to approve his nomination after he was selected last month by Mamdani to serve as corporation counsel, the city’s top attorney. The nominee answered questions about a variety of issues, but much of the meeting was defined by Banks’ attempts to assuage the Council’s fear that he would be a repeat of former Mayor Eric Adams’ one-time pick for the position, Randy Mastro.

As corporation counsel, Banks would be charged with representing both sides of City Hall, a task the Council claimed Mastro wouldn’t be able to fulfill because of his perceived allegiance to the former mayor.

Banks was asked if the Law Department would maintain confidentiality in discussions with council members, and about how he would handle legal clashes between the mayor and City Council. In response, Banks repeatedly affirmed he would act as an attorney working for the best interests of all parties.

“I know there is a whole history here,” Banks said. “I understand the context is a very contentious relationship with the last administration. I am not in that administration.”

Banks, who spent 20 years working as a public defender before entering into government, repeatedly promised he would be a lawyer for the city, not just the mayor’s interest. As councilmembers brought up concerns about the Adams administration’s Law Department, which they said was uncommunicative and unresponsive to their needs, Banks said he would make it his goal to be available to all lawmakers.

“I wanted this position because it’s the lawyer for the City of New York, not the lawyer for the mayor, not the lawyer for the Council – the lawyer for the city,” Banks said. “I look forward to representing the whole city, and I will look forward to do what I have always done when I have had clients that have different points of view: try to reconcile those points of view and ultimately represent the point of view that is judged the proper point of view under the law.”

“My fidelity is to the rule of law and making sure the best interests of the City of New York are served,” Banks added.

City Council Speaker Julie Menin asked Banks if his Law Department would be proactive in their advice and opinion on Council bills.

“We recently had a situation…where the Law Department did not provide all the legal opinions to the bill that the Council ended up passing in December,” Menin said. “We want to seek your commitment that moving forward, that does not happen again because it put the Council in a very difficult situation.”

“To be clear, we cannot have that happen again and we need your commitment that it will not happen again,” Menin told Banks.

Banks promised it wouldn’t.

The legacy of Mastro, whom Adams nominated as corporation counsel in 2024, was clearly fresh on the Council’s minds. Mastro, who previously served as deputy mayor and chief of staff to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, had an intense confirmation hearing in August 2024.

Mastro and councilmembers shouted over each other during the hearing, and he pulled his own nomination a few weeks later.

Banks’ confirmation hearing was nowhere as dramatic, but Mastro’s name was brought up several times as councilmembers probed the nominee about his allegiances.

Nonetheless, councilmembers in attendance seemed to largely approve of Banks’ work.

Banks previously served as the attorney-in-chief at the Legal Aid Society and as the commissioner of the Department of Social Services under former Mayor Bill de Blasio. During his eight-year service under de Blasio, Banks helped implement the city’s Right to Counsel program and reformed the city’s shelter system.

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

City Councilmembers Gale Brewer, Tiffany Cabán, Shekar Krishnan, Crystal Hudson and Lincoln Restler all took time during their comments to praise Banks’ legacy before issuing their questions.

Banks also answered a variety of questions on the Law Department’s role in issues around federal immigration crackdowns in the city, the multiple crises on Rikers Island, and the ability of the city to shelter homeless New Yorkers.

Staffing for the Law Department was a primary concern for Banks, he said during the hearing. The agency has lost over 200 attorneys since the COVID-19 pandemic. How Banks will address those staffing issues after Mamdani announced the city has a $12 billion budget deficit, is unclear.

“The mayor I think has been very clear publicly about the damage of hollowing out the Law Department, and I’m certainly going to work with the administration about the best path forward to address that problem,” Banks said. “Two things can be true at once, which is we need more people and we have challenging finances.”