Mayor Eric Adams’s counsel and chief legal adviser, Lisa Zornberg, abruptly resigned — a major departure from the administration announced late Saturday night as the mayor and his inner circle face an onslaught of federal investigations.
Ms. Zornberg, a former senior Manhattan federal prosecutor, has been a fierce defender of Mr. Adams over the past 10 months, encouraging New Yorkers not to rush to judgment after the first investigation into his campaign fund-raising came to light.
“It has been a great honor to serve the city,” she wrote in a brief letter to the mayor on Saturday. “I am tendering my resignation, effective today, as I have concluded that I can no longer effectively serve in my position. I wish you nothing but the best.”
Ms. Zornberg’s resignation was stunning, not only because of her position and the highly sensitive moment at which it came, but because of its suddenness and because it was effective immediately, allowing no time for a transition to a new counsel.
Her departure came two days after the police commissioner, Edward A. Caban, resigned at the request of City Hall after federal agents took his phone in one of four criminal investigations that involve members of the administration and the mayor himself. The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan is conducting three of the federal inquiries involving the Adams administration, which on Sept. 4 led to the seizure of phones from several top officials.
The investigations into Mr. Adams and his inner circle have destabilized his administration, and prompted two state lawmakers to call on the mayor to resign. The mayor, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, has said that the investigations will show he committed no misconduct and that he remains focused on serving New Yorkers.
On Saturday, Mr. Adams said in a statement: “We appreciate all the work Lisa has done for our administration and, more importantly, the city over the past 13 months. These are hard jobs and we don’t expect anyone to stay in them forever. We wish Lisa all the best in her future endeavors.”
The city’s chief counsel advises the mayor on key policy and legal issues and oversees nearly a dozen agencies, including the offices for labor relations and procurement.
Ms. Zornberg joined City Hall in July 2023 after serving as chief of the Southern District’s criminal division from 2016 to 2018, supervising investigations and prosecutions by roughly 170 prosecutors. She succeeded Brendan R. McGuire, who had been chief counsel since Mr. Adams took office in January 2022 and is representing the mayor in an investigation into his campaign fund-raising.
Ms. Zornberg was one of a handful of top officials who sat next to Mr. Adams at his weekly news conferences at City Hall, fielding questions about the federal investigations and drawing on her expertise as a prosecutor to defend the mayor.
Mr. Adams will have to find a replacement for her at a time when he is already struggling to hire a new corporation counsel, another top city official who leads the Law Department and represents the city, its agencies and the mayor in civil litigation.
The mayor’s choice for corporation counsel, Randy Mastro, a former aide to Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, withdrew his nomination last week to avoid a public rebuke from the City Council, where many members opposed his nomination.
Mr. Adams said in the statement on Saturday that senior members of Ms. Zornberg’s team would “remain in their roles to ensure the office continues to fully operate without issue” and that he expected to name an acting chief counsel “in the coming days.”
The mayor’s press office released a statement from Ms. Zornberg saying 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.”
When Mr. Adams was asked at a news conference last week about the various investigations, Ms. Zornberg interjected to say that city officials could not discuss details.
“Those are all aspects of pending investigations that it would be improper for us to share, because we are in a posture of not wanting to impede any investigation,” she said.
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