PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Ross Sandler, Law Professor and Former Commissioner, on Randy Mastro's Nomination
10:20:55
·
175 sec
Ross Sandler, a law professor and former commissioner, strongly endorses Randy Mastro for the position of Corporation Counsel. He argues that Mastro's experience and knowledge make him the most qualified candidate he has ever seen for this role.
- Sandler emphasizes the importance of the ABA rule stating that a lawyer's representation of a client does not endorse the client's views, urging the council to consider this when evaluating Mastro's past clients.
- He draws parallels between representing unpopular groups and civil rights cases, suggesting that judging lawyers based on their clients could have broader implications.
- Sandler encourages the council to think critically about how they view Mastro's representations and not automatically associate his personal views with those of his clients.
Ross Sandler
10:20:55
Thank you very much, madam chair, council members.
10:20:58
Thank you for being here.
10:20:59
My name is Ross Sandler.
10:21:01
I am a former commissioner and a law professor, and I come to speak in favor of of voting for humanity Mastro.
10:21:12
I've I've been in government many times, and I was thinking back that the first corporation counsel that I knew well was Norman Redlick, who was corporation counsel for John Lindsay.
10:21:24
I've known everyone since then And I can say about Randy Mastro that not a single one of them had the experience, knowledge of government, or the or the ability that he has shown now and would hit the run hit the ground running as a corporation counsel.
10:21:43
He would be the best I've ever I would have ever seen.
10:21:47
And I've been listening to the the testimony, which I found pretty interesting all day long, and I thought the counsel questions were very interesting.
10:21:56
I'm also I also teach professional responsibility.
10:21:59
And one of the rules of the canons, one of the rules of the of the ABA is that a lawyer's representation of a client does not constitute and then doorsmith of the client's political, economic, social, or moral views.
10:22:15
And that's a very important rule because that protects the people who are representing the very unpopular groups that into certain places, civil rights groups, racial groups, gender, that says that we have to have those lawyers doing that work.
10:22:34
But the rule isn't as narrow as that.
10:22:36
It really is about lawyers generally, and that we want lawyers to be independent, to exercise judgment, and to take on clients so that the entire justice system works.
10:22:52
And when I heard a lot of this discussion about Randy's clients, I thought about that, and I thought about this rule, and how important it is as part of the professional candidates in the rules of professional conduct.
10:23:05
And I just suggest that it applies in this in this situation in many many ways and that you should think about what it would be like if there were say a lawyer for a civil rights group and people said about that person, we don't like him because of that representation.
10:23:25
I think it would be useful to put yourself in that place and to think over how to think about his representations and and not and can you associate do you have to associate his views, his social views with that?
10:23:42
And Okay.
UNKNOWN
10:23:42
Do you
Ross Sandler
10:23:43
answer that?
10:23:44
Has come from all the testimony you heard, and I suggest you just work that way.
Keith Powers
10:23:50
Thank you.