James E. Johnson, Corporation Counsel, speaks at the 170th CityLaw Breakfast.
On December 3, 2020 James E. Johnson, Corporation Counsel, spoke at the 170th CityLaw Breakfast. Mr. Johnson spoke on “The Common Good and the Municipal Lawyer: Managing Risk and Building Trust.” Professor Ross Sandler, Director of the Center for New York City Law provided opening remarks and Dean Anthony W. Crowell provided closing remarks. This Breakfast was sponsored by ConEdison, Greenberg Traurig, and Verizon. This was the fourth virtual CityLaw Breakfast as in-person events are not feasible at this time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (read more…)
Dean Anthony W. Crowell and
Professor Ross Sandler, Director
cordially invite you to the 170th CityLaw Breakfast
Featuring Speaker
James E. Johnson, Corporation Counsel
Speaking On:
The Common Good and the Municipal Lawyer: Managing Risk and Building Trust
Date: Thursday, December 3, 2020
Even though the Center for New York City Law is unable to host our CityLaw Breakfast series in person at New York Law School this fall due to COVID-19, we will continue to present great guest speakers with an opportunity for our guests to participate in the discussion virtually using Zoom. Please join us for our next virtual CityLaw Breakfast. (read more…)
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 of four boys, his father was a businessman and his mother a school teacher and then homemaker. Schaffer entered Harvard undergraduate in 1964, at the beginning of the era of public interest law. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in history before going onto Harvard Law School. After receiving his J.D. in 1973, Schaffer worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in its civil litigation division for five years. (read more…)
The Rivington House. Image credit: edenpictures/Flickr
UPDATE: On December 6, 2016, the New York City Council voted 42-0 to approve Introduction 1182-2016 which requires the Department for Citywide Administrative Services to conduct an extensive review of a request to remove a deed restriction on a property managed by DCAS, including a public hearing, to determine whether the request removal furthers the best interests of the City.
The legislation is a response the controversial sale of the Rivington House to a luxury condo developer after DCAS removed deed restrictions that prevented such a development. “The City Council can assure that this will never happen again to any other community,” said the bill’s sponsor Manhattan Council Member Margaret Chin.
The bill will now go to the Mayor for his signature. (read more…)
Mark Peters, Commissioner of the Department of Investigation. Image credit: CityLand
The Department of Investigation threatened to initiate a lawsuit unless the Law Department opened access to previously withheld documents and computers. On July 26, 2016, the Department of Investigation issued a press release announcing the Law Department’s compliance in producing documents and computers relevant to DOI’s investigation into the sale of the Rivington House, a non-profit nursing home, to luxury condominium developers. The press release was issued less-than two weeks after DOI issued a report on how the City’s procedural failures in handling deed-modifications facilitated the sale of the Rivington House. For CityLand’s previous coverage on the DOI report, click here.
(read more…)
(l. to r.) Fritz Schwarz, Michael Cardozo, Zachary Carter, and Paul Crotty discuss challenges during their tenure as New York City Corporation Counsel. Image credit: CityLand
On Friday, May 1, 2015, the Center for New York City Law at New York Law School hosted the 125th City Law Breakfast, celebrating the Center for New York City Law’s 20th Anniversary. The speakers were Zachary Carter, Corporation Counsel of New York, Michael A. Cardozo, a partner at Proskauer Rose and Corporation Counsel from 2002 to 2013, and the Honorable Paul A. Crotty, a federal judge for the Southern District of New York and Corporation Counsel from 1994 to 1997.
(read more…)
