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One of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top aides — who helps select judicial nominees — bragged about his connections to Big Apple politicians in an ad for a Manhattan law firm, raising eyebrows among ethics experts, The Post can reveal.
Ali Najmi, a longtime ally of Hizzoner who chairs the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary, released the video, which features a picture with Mamdani, on social media to promote personal injury law firm Liakas Law, PC.
“We know how to get good results. We have a deep network that extends throughout the city of New York,” Najmi says — as the camera pans over photos of Mamdani and City Councilwoman Crystal Hudson.
The clip, posted on Instagram in February, shows Najmi standing next to Mamdani at what appears to be a food distribution event and other members of the law firm posing with Hudson, a progressive Brooklyn Democrat.
The video raised alarms among good government experts, though they noted it may not constitute an outright violation of the city’s conflict of interest code.
“Public servants, including those serving on boards and commissions, need to have bright lines between their public and private work, and should not be engaging in activities that make it appear that they are drumming up business based on their connections to government,” Rachael Fauss, a senior policy advisor at Reinvent Albany, said after reviewing the video.
She also urged the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary to make public “any recusal policies to show exactly what firewalls are being set up between board members and any private business interests.”
The mayor’s office did not comment on the transparency issue, but noted the administration was not aware of the video — which was posted after Mamdani appointed Najmi to the judicial board Jan. 2.
“City hall did not review or have any involvement in this video, which was produced independently by the law firm and released in February without our knowledge,” City Hall spokesman Sam Raskin said in a statement.
Najmi’s gig as a “special counsel” for Liakas Law — revealed by The Post earlier this year — also raised conflict of interest questions from experts, including that a top City Hall aide also working for a legal firm could potentially try to influence the mayor’s position on issues affecting the practice’s bottom line.
Experts at the time warned that Najmi’s position at the firm echoed a similar deal where corrupt former state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver served as “of consul” to a personal injury firm despite not performing legal work.
Najmi defended himself in in a statement to The Post, noting he was cleared by the city’s Conflict of Interest Board to litigate in cases against the Big Apple while also chairing the MACJ.
“As Chair of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary, I have adhered to the Committee’s Code of Conduct,” Najmi said.
The committee is tasked with naming lawyers to the bench in family and civil courts, as well as interim appointees for criminal courts.
Critics have lambasted Mamdani for not selecting a single Jewish person to serve on the judicial screening panel, while appointing a lawyer who repped a Luigi Mangione apologist.
The COIB declined to comment.
Liakas Law spokesman Hank Sheinkopf defended the promotional video in a statement.
“We are proud to stand with community leaders to feed families, support children, and strengthen neighborhoods, while fighting in the courtroom to protect New Yorkers from the largest corporations and make our city safer. Trying to weaponize photographs of community service says far more about the criticism than it does about our commitment to New York,” he said.
Hudson also went to bat for Najmi, saying in a statement that he “operates with honesty, transparency, and integrity.”
“I have worked with him for years because he is an upstanding attorney who provides thoughtful and informed counsel. Any insinuation otherwise is simply false,” she said.
— Additional reporting by Carl Campanile
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