Mamdani nominates Steven Banks as next Law Department head, names City Hall chief counsel

On Tuesday, incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani named longtime public interest attorney Steven Banks as his pick for the city’s next Corporation Counsel and named Ramzi Kassem as the mayor’s chief counsel for the new administration.

Banks, a former attorney in chief for the Legal Aid Society, is more recently known for serving as the city’s “homelessness czar” during former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, in which he led the city’s Department of Social Services.

During his three decades with Legal Aid, Banks was an architect in a settlement in the landmark McCain v. Koch case, which established the permanent and enforceable right to shelter for families experiencing homelessness in New York City.

As he announced Banks’ nomination Tuesday, Mamdani affirmed his campaign-trail commitment to hire 200 more lawyers to the Law Department, saying he believed the department was currently “short-staffed” and that the additional lawyers were needed to ensure Banks and the department could properly carry out the job of being on the front lines of fights for equal rights.

“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. “This is incredibly important for us in the work that we are seeking to do in this administration: that we have a Corporations 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 added that some of the work the prospective new Law Department hires will do will involve providing legal services for immigrant New Yorkers.

In his first public appearance as Corporation Counsel nominee, Banks emphasized the importance of strong legal staffing in enacting Mamdani’s affordability agenda and visions for “transformative change.”

“I come to the institution of the law department, with [this] approach…Engage the frontline staff to understand the nature of the work that they’re doing, their views of the work that they’re doing, and the kinds of ways that they see that they can play a key role in the front lines of moving forward with the mayor’s affordability agenda,” Banks said. “In order to move an institution forward, you have to engage the people who are doing the work and move forward on that basis.”

Banks credited his time at the Legal Aid Society with providing him the experience managing a legal staff larger than the department he’s slated to lead – over 1,100 lawyers – and a unique perspective on city policy he said he looked forward to bringing to the Law Department.

“Over the course of my 44 years as a lawyer, I’ve represented large numbers of individual clients whose lives have been harmed by city actions,” Banks said. “This has provided me with a unique advantage on the human impact of city policies and practices. The Law Department can play an essential role in addressing the human impact of such policies.”

During his first city government stint, Banks helped implement the city’s Right to Counsel program for low-income tenants, which has reduced evictions by city marshals by 41%, and achieved a court order to restore 24/7 video monitoring at Rikers Island.

Banks’ nomination for the post is subject to a vote by the City Council.

When asked Tuesday if he’d received any reassurances that the incoming council would do so, Mamdani said he’d “been in touch” with incoming City Council Speaker Julie Menin about the nomination, and “looked forward to the process.”

Kassem’s created a reputation as an attorney focused on advocating for immigrant rights. The founder of the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility, or CLEAR, Project at the City University of New York School of Law, he and his organization have supported clients, communities, and movements targeted under the guise of national security and provided legal defense for students detained by ICE for over two decades.

Ramzi Kassem, Mamdani’s pick for City Hall chief counsel, speaks at a Tuesday news conference.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell

Kassem has also served as Senior Policy Advisor in President Joe Biden’s White House, where he led interagency policy processes on issues like immigration court backlogs, immigration legislation and regulations, watchlisting and screening policies and countering the threats posed by commercial spyware.

“The rule of law is the bedrock of good governance, effective leadership, and a city that works for working people,” Mamdani said. “With Steve Banks and Ramzi Kassem as my Corporations and Chief Counsel, our City will not only operate in accordance with the law, but will understand and employ it as a critical tool in the fight for working people and to protect their safety and fundamental freedoms.”

Kassem, who’s originally from Lebanon, called New York City his “first stable and permanent home.” He said Tuesday that serving as City Hall’s chief counsel would provide him with the opportunity to “repay the debt” he feels he owes to the city for embracing him.

“City Hall will be stronger with him in it and our work of building a more prosperous city for all will have a powerful advocate,” Mamdani said of Kassem. “My sincere hope is that New Yorkers who have long felt on the margins of this city, the homeless veterans trying to survive, the patient searching for the care that they need, an immigrant trying to get by, will feel that they now have leaders in their corner who understand their struggles and care to fight for them.”

In his roughly 20 years as an attorney, Kassem has argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Second Circuit, the D.C. Circuit, multiple federal district courts, the Military Commission at Guantánamo Bay, and in administrative immigration proceedings nationwide.

As City Hall’s chief counsel, Kassem will provide Mamdani with legal guidance on legislation, policy matters, compliance, ethics, and transparency, serving as his top in-house attorney, a role similar to the one he took on in the Biden administration.

Shane O’Brien contributed to this report.