CityLaw Profile: Salvatore J. Russo, General Counsel to the Health and Hospitals Corporation

Salvatore J. Russo is the senior vice president, general counsel, secretary to the board of directors, and a corporate officer at the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. HHC is the public benefit corporation responsible for administering the City’s municipal health care system, which involves the operation of eleven acute-care hospitals, four long-term-care facilities, and six diagnostic treatment centers. HHC functions like a voluntary, not-for-profit hospital with an $8 billion budget and approximately … <Read More>


New York’s Constitutional Convention Vote: Hit or Stand?

In 2017, along with voting for mayor, council members, and other elected officials, the voters of New York will be asked to answer “Yes “or “No” to this question:  “Shall there be a convention to revise the constitution and amend the same?” Every twenty years, the New York State constitution requires that the voters of the State be given the option to call a constitutional convention for revising and amending the New York State constitution … <Read More>


Rent Stabilization: Preserving Low and Middle-Income Housing

Rent regulation is not a new issue for New York City. But the headlines in June 2015 were far larger and the reactions more contentious than at any time in recent memory. For the first time in its 46-year history, the Rent Guidelines Board decided that there would be no increase in rents for one-year renewals on rent-stabilized apartments; it also limited increases on two year renewals to two-percent. Not surprisingly, tenants hailed the decision … <Read More>


CityLaw Breakfasts Kick Off the New Academic Year

To a packed house on Friday, August 28, 2015, at 8:30 a.m., Dean Anthony Crowell called to order the 127th CityLaw Breakfast. The morning’s speaker was Carl Weisbrod, Chairman of the City Planning Commission, and the topic was affordable housing. Friday mornings in late August are not ideal for a business breakfast. Nevertheless, more than 200 people attended. They enjoyed the coffee, fruit and muffins, but they came because CityLaw Breakfasts play … <Read More>


Robert Carroll: “The Believers”

(This post originally appeared on October 28, 2014.)

“How far will you go to achieve what you want?” “How long will you hold up when the outside world pushes back?” These questions, frequently decided by the strength of a person’s beliefs, form the basis of The Believers, the debut play of playwright and New York Law School alum Robert Carroll.


Taxis: Yellow, Green and Black: Competition & Evolution

On a daily basis I am reminded that seemingly everyone loves to talk about taxis. Last year between the Daily News, the Post and Times, there were over 2,000 articles mentioning taxis, which transport about a million people a day – yet only about 3,000 articles mentioning subways which transport six-million people a day. Travelers and New Yorkers are clearly disproportionally obsessed with taxis.

Assuming that what people ask me is representative of what’s on … <Read More>