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.

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(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.

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The Center for New York City Law cordially invites you to celebrate the Center’s 20th Anniversary at the 125th City Law Breakfast

presenting

Zachary Carter, Michael A. Cardozo, and the Honorable Paul A. Crotty

Corporation Counsel of the City of New York, Partner at Proskauer Rose, and U.S. District Judge

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SPECIAL RECOGNITION:

On our twentieth anniversary, the Center offers special recognition for:

Jeffrey Friedlander, First Assistant Corporation Counsel, Office of the Corporation Counsel

Mary McCormick, President, Fund for the City of New York

Sheila Aresty ’94, Steven and Sheila Aresty Foundation

Stanley S. Shuman, Allen & Co., LLC, Chair, Center for New York City Law Advisory Committee

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David Farber, New York City Housing Authority General Counsel and Executive Vice-President for Legal Affairs. Image credit: NYCHA

David Farber was appointed New York City Housing Authority Executive Vice-President for Legal Affairs and General Counsel in August 2014.  When speaking with David, his clear love for New York City is readily apparent and supplemented by a driving desire to leave the city better than he found it.  Turning 50 this year, David has spent the majority of his professional career in service to his city with great satisfaction.

Born in Manhattan and raised in Yorktown, Westchester County, David’s parents imparted both a love of New York and a tradition of civic responsibility to David.  After retirement, David’s father worked as a math teacher in a Bronx high school for five years, while his mother was a social worker.  David spent a childhood in music, playing the violin through his twenties but setting it aside in later years, and made trips to the Bronx when he could to see the Yankees play.  “As soon as I could drive, my best friend and I would drive down to Yankee games, but worry about where we were going to park the car.”

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