Ali Najmi has filed a lawsuit against the city following a Central Park carriage accident—a case that presents a significant conflict of interest given his role as head of the judicial-nominations board under Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Undoubtedly, the family of Romanch Mahajan, who tragically died after falling from a runaway carriage in Central Park, is entitled to legal representation.
However, Najmi’s position as their attorney creates a clear incompatibility with any city role, particularly one that involves the selection of future judges.
In fact, this is just the tip of the iceberg; other conflicts should have precluded Najmi from his current position from the start.
It’s not merely that he operates a private practice focused on criminal defense, civil rights, and election law. He’s also “of counsel” at Liakas Law, a firm currently under federal scrutiny for allegedly running a fraudulent operation that preys on immigrants and other vulnerable groups through sham lawsuits and inflated medical billing.
There’s a policy issue, too: The ambulance-chasing Najmi benefits from Scaffold Law cases — which drive insurance premiums sky-high and ballooning housing construction costs by as much as 10%, undermining the mayor’s affordable-housing agenda.
Najmi had earlier served as Mamdani’s campaign lawyer; we understand why he might trust him — but also wonder if he’s one of the reasons the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary has not a single Jewish member.
Given how very many New York lawyers are Jews — including plenty of radicals who’d enthusiastically support the mayor’s agenda — it’s impossible not to think this was intentional discrimination.
City Hall says it did consider retired Appellate Division Justice John Leventhal for the committee, but he “did not pass our vetting process” because he “served on [Ghislaine] Maxwell’s legal team.”
Huh? If Team Mamdani is going to start holding lawyers’ past clients against them, they’d be unable to hire practically any criminal-defense lawyer.
Heck, Najmi runs that committee and is a top Mamdani political adviser, despite plenty of questionable clients.
We’re no fans of anyone in the mayor’s inner circle, but (setting ideology aside) Najmi has to be most questionable.