Political turmoil after NYC’s chief legal counsel Lisa Zornberg abruptly quits: ‘Timing couldn’t be worse’
City Council members and political pundits Sunday said they are shocked Mayor Eric Adams’ chief legal counsel has abruptly resigned, with an insider adding the timing “couldn’t look — or be — worse.”
Saturday night’s stunning resignation by Lisa Zornberg — a former Manhattan federal prosecutor who has been City Hall’s lead lawyer since July 2023 — left observers more concerned than ever about Adam’s faltering administration, which is reeling from a slew of recent federal raids targeting top aides.
“The timing [of Zornberg’s resignation] couldn’t look — or be — worse,” political pundit Ken Frydman told The Post. “She left her client — Eric Adams — without a chief counsel just when he and City Hall need one most.”
Several city pols agreed, with Councilwoman Joann Ariola, a Queens Republican, saying she thought the resignation was “really emblematic of the turmoil we are seeing at the heights of city government.”
Oswald Feliz, a Bronx Democrat, said, “This gets more concerning by the day.”
Zornberg’s decision to suddenly punch out comes just as federal investigators are besieging members of Adams’ inner circle, including his top lieutenants, close political allies and administration officials.
Before coming to City Hall, Zornberg was the chief of the criminal division at the Southern District of New York from 2016 to 2018, according to her LinkedIn profile.
She left that post to join the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton, where she worked for four years as a member of its white-collar and regulatory defense group, the profile said.
She took over as the city counsel last summer, replacing Brendan McGuire — who himself is representing the mayor in an unrelated campaign fund-raising investigation, according to the New York Times.
When Adams appointed Zornberg to the top city legal spot, he called her “the right leader at the right time.
“Her track record speaks for herself,” he said at a press conference announcing his choice.
“I remember sitting down when I did my final interview and asking why [she wanted to work here], and she says, ‘Public life is a great service.’
“She wanted to just continue that and committed herself to it,” he said. “And we are really pleased that she decided to do so.“
Zornberg, for her part, said she told Adams she was a “straight shooter. I don’t BS.
“And the mayor looked me in the eyes and said, ‘That’s what I want,’ ” Zornberg said at the time.
On Saturday, Zornberg said in a statement that she was “deeply grateful to Mayor Adams for giving me the opportunity to serve the city, and I strongly support the work he has done and continues to do for New Yorkers.”
Adams told reporters at a Sunday ribbon-cutting at the African-American Day Parade in Harlem that Zornberg was looking to “go on with her next level of her professional life.
“She worked for me for over a year after my former counsel left to go back into private practice,” Hizzoner said. “And, you know how I am, I don’t share private conversations, what we talked talk about. But there was nothing involved, any new development.”
He denied that she’d become embroiled in the federal probe that already took down his police commissioner, Edward Caban, who resigned Thursday — just a week after the feds raided his Rockland County home in a potential corruption probe.
“Listen, I’m not going to go into that — but I’m, first of all, [going] to say no to that, because I don’t want any innuendos,” Adams said.
The mayor blamed his recent COVID diagnosis — which kept him quarantined in Gracie Mansion last week — as part of the reason why Zornberg’s resignation was made public so late Saturday.
“I was under the weather last week with COVID, had a lot going on,” he said. “She left on her own accord … Listen, you’re never happy to see a well-qualified person like Lisa [leave]. She loves the city.
“And not only has she been just a great adviser, friend and confidant … she brought a lot of experience to the administration,” he said. “But she wants to do other things with her life, and I respect that.”
Adams said he was looking for her replacement and planned to make an announcement “in the next few days.”
But the mayor’s confident aura did not assuage council members’ fears that Zornberg’s departure was a bad sign — a very bad sign.
“I think this is the most significant thing that’s happened in the past two weeks, raids aside,” said a council source who wished to remain anonymous.
“When an attorney resigns so suddenly, it brings into question whether continuing to serve as the top attorney for the mayor would have violated her legal ethics — that’s usually what this means,” the source said. “It’s either she’s giving her client advice that he’s not [following] or, second, it could be as simple as she doesn’t want this to taint her reputation.
“In her resignation letter, she said she can ‘no longer effectively serve,’ ” the source said. “This tells me that she feels that she’s maxed out on what she can do — given the current circumstances.”
Lincoln Restler, a Brooklyn Democrat, said Zornberg had been a “zealous defender of the administration at every turn — until Saturday night at 10 p.m.
“Her sudden resignation implies that the administration has reached a point where she can no longer defend it,” Restler said.
Political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said the timing was particularly bad for the embattled Dem mayor.
“Instability during a corruption investigation is not good,” he said. “It creates doubt.”
Robert Holden, a Queens Democrat, agreed.
“At the very least, the optics are certainly bad — it plays into the, ‘it’s time to jump ship’ talks,” Holden said. “Only time will tell how bad this really is.
“But when your lawyers are quitting, it’s never a good sign.”
