City reverses statement about lawyers addressing torts, not Trump

City Mayor Plans Significant Increase in Legal Staff

Mayor Zoran Mamdani is aiming to enhance the city’s legal department, proposing a mass hiring initiative as a method to mitigate costly personal injury lawsuits.

In his announcement regarding an interim budget of $127 billion, he stated, “We plan to add 200 attorneys to the Department of Justice to reduce tort liability. By doing this, we anticipate savings of $125 million in fiscal year 2027.” This assertion was made public on Tuesday.

However, a clarification from City Hall the following day indicated that these new hires will actually be distributed across various roles, rather than being solely dedicated to tort cases.

During his campaign, Mamdani presented the recruitment of 200 lawyers as a critical response to, well, the challenges posed by former President Trump. Interestingly, he didn’t mention focusing on tackling illegal activities specifically.

Overall, Mamdani’s initial budget proposal aims to create a total of 300 new positions within the long-overworked department, which includes 200 attorneys and 100 support roles. Additionally, he intends to increase the budget of the agency by $70 million, raising it to a total of $314.4 million.

City Hall has yet to disclose how they calculated that the $70 million increase would lead to $125 million in savings.

Moreover, neither the mayor’s office nor the preliminary budget documents outlined how the new attorneys would be integrated into the existing structure of the department.

The Department of Justice manages all legal affairs for the city. This includes drafting legislation, overseeing contracts, facilitating real estate transactions, processing fines, and pursuing litigation to uphold regulations.

Over the years, the department has seen workforce reductions stemming from low salaries; it currently operates with around 1,400 employees, which is roughly 100 short of what the budget allows.