De Blasio Names Zachary Carter As Corporation Counsel
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio has picked a former U.S. attorney to be the city's top lawyer.
De Blasio announced the appointment of Zachary Carter as corporation counsel on Sunday.
Carter was the first black U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York from 1993 to 1999, and oversaw high profile prosecutions including the Abner Louima police brutality case. He started in the office as an assistant U.S. attorney in 1975.
De Blasio Names Zachary Carter As Corporation Counsel
De Blasio said the city's top attorney plays a critical role in government and is the conscience of the administration.
"My vision for this office, as with all parts of government, is a progressive activist corporation counsel's office," de Blasio said.
De Blasio said among Carter's first orders of business will be dropping the appeal of a judge's ruling that found that New York City carried out its police stop-and-frisk policy in a discriminatory manner.
De Blasio Names Zachary Carter As Corporation Counsel
Carter is currently a partner at a law firm. He earned his law degree from New York University School of Law.
"I tried to use the law to level the playing field for those seeking equal access to justice and to opportunity, free from the burdens of discrimination based on race, national origin, gender, sexual preference or economic class," Carter said.
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