CityLaw Profile: Frederick Schaffer, Chair of the Campaign Finance Board

In February 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Frederick Schaffer as the Chair of the City’s Campaign Finance Board. The Board, which will be thirty years old next year, is responsible for enforcing New York City’s campaign finance law, monitoring campaign contributions and disclosures, overseeing the public matching funds program and enforcing the rules. Schaffer takes the reigns as the Board heads into the 2017 mayoral campaign.

Schaffer was born and raised in Brooklyn. One … <Read More>


CityLaw Profile: Arthur Leonard, Professor, Author, Editor, Chronicler, Composer, Bassist

Arthur Leonard for 40 years has been one of the most important and most-read chronicler of the LGBT rights movement. In 1979, as the founder and president of the City’s Gay Lawyers Association Leonard began reporting judicial decisions involving LGBT rights and slipping them in the monthly mailer—this was the start of LGBT Law Notes. Originally a two-sided photocopied sheet of paper, LGBT Law Notes is now a monthly newsletter with a circulation of thousands. … <Read More>


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>


CityLaw Profile – City Council Zoning Chair Donovan Richards on Improving Sustainability

Donovan Richards was elected to the City Council from the 31st District in February 2013.  When you speak with City Council member Donovan Richards, two things become readily apparent:  an encyclopedic knowledge of the needs of his Southeast Queens Council district and the drive to pursue solutions for each of those needs simultaneously.


CityLaw Profile – Probation Commissioner Ana Bermudez and Innovation in Government

Ana Bermudez was named DOP Commissioner in April 2014. Born in the Guaynabo suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Bermudez grew up with her mother’s commitment to social justice and a belief that humans have a responsibility to care for each other. Bermudez left Puerto Rico in 1982 to attend college at Brown University and later Yale Law School. Originally intending to become a hospital administrator, Bermudez quickly found a passion for trial work through … <Read More>


CityLaw Profile – COIB General Counsel Wayne Hawley on Ethical City Government

Wayne Hawley has served with the Conflicts of Interest Board since 1999. Born in California, Hawley grew up in a military family and moved frequently, completing high school in Virginia before returning to California as an undergrad at Claremont McKenna College. He relocated to the East Coast again for Yale Law School, then in his words, “followed the bouncing ball” back to Los Angeles for two years of private practice. Hawley crossed the country again … <Read More>