File #: Int 1389-2025    Version: * Name: Requiring the Law Department to report on its involvement in legal actions in which a current or former City employee is a party.
Type: Introduction Status: Committee
Committee: Committee on Governmental Operations, State & Federal Legislation
On agenda: 9/10/2025
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring the Law Department to report on its involvement in legal actions in which a current or former City employee is a party
Sponsors: Lincoln Restler, Tiffany Cabán
Council Member Sponsors: 2
Summary: This bill would require the Law Department, in coordination with the Comptroller, to publish a report twice annually that describes legal actions in which the Law Department is involved in the direct representation of, or contracting of representation for, former or current City employees. Such report would include the former or current City employee’s name, the status of their case, the hours and expenditures spent on such employee’s legal representation, and the amount of money for which the case was settled or decided.
Indexes: Report Required
Attachments: 1. Summary of Int. No. 1389, 2. Int. No. 1389, 3. September 10, 2025 - Stated Meeting Agenda

Int. No. 1389

 

By Council Members Restler and Cabán

 

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring the Law Department to report on its involvement in legal actions in which a current or former City employee is a party

 

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

 

 

Section 1. Chapter 1 of title 7 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new section 7-115 to read as follows:

§ 7-115 Reporting on law department involvement in legal actions. a. Definitions. As used in this section, the following terms have the following meanings:

City employee. The term “city employee” means any person: (1) who is employed by a department or agency of the city; (2) is paid out of the city treasury; and (3) is employed under terms prescribing a work week regularly consisting of twenty or more hours during the fiscal year.

External counsel. The term “external counsel” means any attorney, firm, or legal consultants who represent, perform legal services, or provide legal counsel.

b. Reporting. No later than January 31, 2026 and no later than each July 31 and January 31 thereafter, the law department, in coordination with the comptroller, shall draft and post on its website in a searchable and machine-readable format, and provide notice of such posting to the mayor, the speaker of the council, and the head of each agency, a report containing the following information regarding civil actions or criminal proceedings in which a former or current city employee is a party and in which the law department is involved in the city employee’s representation, with the reported information to be disaggregated by each case in which the law department is involved:

1. the name of the current or former city employee named in the legal action;

2. the status of such current or former city employee’s case;

3. in the event that the law department is directly representing such current or former city employee, the hours being spent on the case and the expenditures for the case;

4. in the event that the law department elected to contract with external counsel to represent such current or former city employee, the external counsel being retained, the expenditures being paid to external counsel, and the department’s rationale to outsource legal counsel in the case;

5. in the event the case has settled, the settlement amount; and

6. in the event the case has been decided, the judgment amount.

c. Scope of report. The report shall cover all legal actions filed in the five-year period preceding the report in which a current or former city employee was a party to, and in which the law department was involved.

d. Applicability of other laws. Nothing in this section shall be construed to diminish or supersede any other applicable city, state, or federal regulation including, but not limited to, the conditions, procedures, and limitations contained in section fifty-k of the general municipal law, section 50 of the general municipal law, section 50-b of the civil rights law, section 50-c of the civil rights law, and chapter 12 of title 23 of the administrative code of the city of New York.

§ 2. This local law takes effect immediately.    

1.                     

RO

LS #18614

8/8/2025, 2:45 PM