Suits And The City: The City's Corporation Counsel

A great Associated Press story about NYC's corporation counsel, Michael Cardozo and counsels past. What is a NYC corporation counsel, you ask? Well, it's the city's lawyer, in both "affirmative and defensive" actions, as the website says, and approves all the contracts that the City signs. And a fun fact: NYC is the most litigious city in the country, and the story has lots of bizarre lawsuit stories, like a the corporation counsel arguing that the jury award of $76 million for a gang member shot by a police officer was excessive, considering the gang member fired on the officer with a machine gun or the case of the blind man who drove a car and crashed into a barrier, claiming the the underpass should have been lighted better. Gothamist, being secret law nerds after many years of watching Matlock, L.A. Law, The Practice, and, of course, Law & Order, loves these stories.

It turns out the Cardozo is, in fact, a descendent of Bejamin Cardozo, the Supreme Court justice that the Law School on 5th Avenue and 12th Street is named after. And learn more about what the New York City Law Department does.

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By Jen Chung in News on December 20, 2004 2:37 PM

Comments [rss]

j.

Excuse me -- Associate and Chief "Judge" of the NY Court of Appeals.

j.

Hilton, you were likely confused because Cardozo was only a member of the SCOTUS for a fairly short period of time. He didn't necessarily make that large of an impact. He was, however, much more influential in his role as Associate Justice, and later Justice, on the NY Court of Appeals.

And I am right about his familial ties. Trust me.

Hilton

Youre right, my bad sorry :(

http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/75/

paris

Double correction: Cardozo was head of the NY Court of Appeals and was a member of the US Supreme Court. I can't vouch for the familial ties on the other hand.

Hilton

Correction: as far as my memory goes, Cardozo was never a US Supreme Court Justice. He may have been a NY Supreme Court Judge at some point, but that's a little different because (1) that's state, not federal ct, and (2) the supreme court is the lowest court in NY.

j.

He's only sort of a descendant of Benjamin Cardozo. Justice Cardozo never married, never had kids. M. Cardozo is, I think, a descendant of one of Justice Cardozo's sisters.