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Dogged defense and punchy language: The high-profile attorney representing NYC mayor
By
Samantha Max
Published Oct 2, 2024
Modified Oct 2, 2024
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John Lamparski/Getty Images
By
Samantha Max
Published Oct 2, 2024
Modified Oct 2, 2024
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As the criminal case against Mayor Eric Adams ramps up, the mayor's high-profile attorney is fiercely defending him, both in legal filings and in statements to the press.
The working relationship between Adams and his lawyer, Alex Spiro, isn’t new. For months, Spiro has been representing the mayor in a civil lawsuit brought by a former transit police officer who accused Adams of asking her to perform oral sex and masturbating in front of her when she refused. Adams has denied the allegations.
On Wednesday, Spiro filed papers asking to withdraw as Adams' attorney in the sexual abuse lawsuit. He said the city's Conflicts of Interest Board raised concerns about him representing the mayor in both the civil and criminal case. The executive director of the board said she couldn't comment on confidential communications to public servants.
Still, court filings in that case offer a preview of the tone and legal strategy Spiro is likely to take in weeks to come, as he attempts to undermine federal prosecutors’ criminal case against the mayor. Email correspondence, motions and other documents filed in the civil docket portray a lawyer who doggedly fights for his client, questions accusers' credibility, and toggles between cordiality and hostility with an opposing attorney.
“If you have some information or evidence you want me to consider regarding these claims I'm always here to listen,” Spiro said in an email to the woman’s attorney in May. “But to date it's been what we believe to be a fictitious allegation and a disregarding of the applicable law.”
Neither Spiro nor a spokesperson for his law firm responded to multiple requests for comment before publication.
The Harvard Law School graduate is a partner at Quinn Emanuel, where he co-chairs the investigations, government enforcement and white-collar defense practice, according to a bio on the law firm’s website. Before becoming a defense attorney, he worked at the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Adams’ attorney has represented a slew of celebrities, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Brooklyn rappers Jay-Z and Bobby Shmurda, actor Alec Baldwin, and former Knicks star Charles Oakley.
Now, Spiro is representing Adams in a federal bribery and fraud indictment filed last week in the Southern District of New York. The U.S. attorney’s office accused the mayor of accepting more than $100,000 worth of international flights and luxury hotel stays in exchange for political favors. Spiro has already asked a judge to dismiss the bribery charge, arguing in court papers that the allegations are “vague” and don’t meet the legal definition for bribery.
Spiro’s plain-spoken yet defiant tone matches that of the mayor, who is known for his “swagger” and vehement denial of wrongdoing. And his statements inside and outside of court appear to be directed not just at prosecutors or the judge, but at political leaders and members of the public who could shape Adams’ future as he both attempts to disprove his guilt and run for re-election.
At a press conference on Monday, Spiro said prosecutors are bringing a fake case for “spectacle” and called their strategy “amateur hour.”
“They’re trying to manipulate and fool and taint all of you,” he told reporters. “But I have faith, as does the mayor, that New Yorkers will see through this — that New Yorkers are too savvy to be tricked by these games.”
Sexual misconduct case
Last November, former transit police officer Lorna Beach-Mathura alerted the city and the mayor that she planned to file a civil suit under the Adult Survivors Act, a state law that provided a one-year window to bring sexual assault lawsuits outside the statute of limitations.
Beach-Mathura said when she and Adams worked together in the transit bureau at the police department in 1993, she asked him for advice after she was passed over for a promotion. But instead of helping her with her career, Beach-Mathura said, Adams drove her to a vacant lot, begged her for oral sex, forced her hand onto his penis and then masturbated in front of her.
Adams has said he doesn’t remember ever meeting Beach-Mathura and that her allegations “absolutely did not happen.”
Filings in the sexual misconduct lawsuit against Adams show how Spiro uses punchy and direct language to make his case, whether in a formal motion to a judge or in an email to the plaintiff’s attorney. He uses phrases like “Yet that is not all” and “Worse still” to punctuate key points. Sometimes he even bolds words for emphasis.
Former colleague David Jaroslawicz said Spiro knows how to communicate in a way that resonates.
“He speaks to the common man,” Jaroslawicz said. “He doesn’t have to use fancy words that some jurors may not understand. No legalese.”
In emails to Beach-Mathura’s lawyer, Spiro is at times friendly and polite. He starts one message: “Nice to meet you.” But the tone quickly hardens.
“If you do not meet and confer with my colleagues then we will conclude (based on a series of decisions you have made) that you do not intend to meaningfully comply with the discovery deadlines required by law,” he wrote in an email in May.
While some attorneys on email chains filed in the docket sign off their messages with “Thanks” or “Yours,” Spiro ends his emails: “We reserve all rights. Alex.”
In many of the court filings, Spiro tries to cast doubt on Beach-Mathura’s credibility. The attorney calls her a “serial litigant” who has exhibited “a pattern of delay and obfuscation.” He criticizes her for missing an appointment to give sworn testimony, even though he writes in court papers that the defense team was “willing to bend over backwards” to find a time and location that worked for her. He argues that Beach-Mathura is failing to meet with Adams’ attorneys or turn over evidence because she’s lying.
“The allegations of wrongdoing in the complaint are entirely fictitious, and defendants expect and are looking forward to their day in court and complete vindication,” Spiro’s team wrote in an answer to the lawsuit.
Beach-Mathura’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment, but in an affidavit Beach-Mathura said she missed the appointment because she came down with a sinus infection and was also anxious about testifying in front of the mayor. A judge ruled Tuesday that the case will be dismissed if Beach-Mathura does not appear for a deposition rescheduled for later this month.
This story has been updated to reflect that Alex Spiro has asked to remove himself from Adams' civil case.
Tagged
Mayor Eric Adams
Adams investigations
Politics
us attorney's office
Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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