![\"55078588293_7eb04f588e_k\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/55078588293_7eb04f588e_k.jpg\" "\\"City")
\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Steven Banks, Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s nominee for New York City Corporation Counsel, tesitfied before City Council on Feb. 4. Photo by John McCarten\/NYC Council Media Unit<\/p>\n
Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s pick to head the city\u2019s Law Department<\/a> was confirmed by the New York City Council after promising to be a lawyer for the entire city<\/a>, not just the mayor, at his confirmation hearing last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n Steven Banks, who served as the city\u2019s \u201chomelessness czar\u201d at the city\u2019s Department of Homeless Services under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, is set to return to City Hall after being confirmed Thursday via a 42-6 City Council vote, with one abstention.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI look forward to representing the whole city,\u201d Banks said at his confirmation hearing last week. He added that he looked forward to bringing a \u201cunique perspective\u201d to the department as someone who spent 33 years litigating against it while serving as the attorney in chief of the Legal Aid Society.<\/p>\n While Banks\u2019 confirmation was met with praise from a handful of council members who said they \u201ccelebrated\u201d him leading the department as they voted yes, Republican Minority Leader David Carr vocally opposed his nomination. Carr said he and Banks had \u201cphilosophical differences,\u201d including over the city\u2019s right to shelter policies, of which Banks helped establish as an architect of the landmark McCain v. Koch settlement.\u00a0<\/p>\n At his confirmation hearing last week, Banks was questioned by roughly a dozen council members who said they didn\u2019t want a repeat of their experience under the Adams administration, where they said they felt like they didn\u2019t have enough confidential legal advice.\u00a0<\/p>\n Banks promised he\u2019d be accessible to members \u2014 and that all advice would be truly confidential \u2014 offering to give each his phone number so they could call him whenever necessary.\u00a0<\/p>\n Banks emphasized he\u2019d aim to work collaboratively with the City Council and mayor to avoid major disagreements between the two, like the kind that arose repeatedly under Adams. If disagreements do arise, Banks said he\u2019d work to reconcile the different points of view in order to \u201cultimately represent \u2026 the proper point of view under the law.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not beholden to any institution, any particular elected official,\u201d Banks told the council last week. \u201cMy fidelity is to the rule of law and making sure that the best interests of the city of New York are served, regardless of what part of the city is advancing a particular point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n Banks also cited his experience as a leader of Legal Aid Society, working with a big staff on a tight budget, as something that will help him work with Mamdani on his goal of hiring hundreds of attorneys despite budgetary constraints.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI know how to manage a budget. I know how to look for cost savings, and I know how to make sure that the agencies are running as they should,\u201d Banks said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mayor certainly has said very publicly that he wants to restore staffing at the law department to address the fact that it had been hollowed out,\u201d Banks said. \u201cI look forward to working with the mayor and working frankly with the council to address the staffing needs there, as well as looking at efficiencies [and] at the areas where I think more can be done.\u201d<\/p>\n \nBanks will take over the post from Muriel Goode-Trufant, who served as corporation counsel since June 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steven Banks, Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s nominee for New York City Corporation Counsel, tesitfied before City Council on Feb.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[301,2710,43241,22925,9,11,10,613,42256],"class_list":["post-133617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-city-council","tag-law","tag-law-department","tag-mayor-zohran-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-pm-newsletter","tag-steven-banks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}