Mayor Adams nominates Sylvia Hinds-Radix as corporation counsel

January 7, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

Hon. Sylvia Hinds-Radix, after receiving an honorary doctorate from Metropolitan College of New York. Eagle file photo by Mario Belluomo

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Hon. Sylvia Hinds-Radix, an Appellate judge who has been active in, and well-respected by, the Brooklyn legal community for many years, has now been appointed by Mayor Eric Adams as the city’s new corporation counsel.

Hinds-Radix will be the first Caribbean-born woman to serve as Corporation Counsel in New York City’s history. As corporation counsel, she will lead the Law Department, which is primarily responsible for providing legal representation to the city, the mayor, other elected officials and city agencies in all affirmative and defensive civil litigation.

Hinds-Radix also conducted the mayor’s swearing-in ceremony at the Times Square New Year’s Celebration.

She has most recently served as an associate justice of the New York State Appellate Division, Second Department in Brooklyn Heights, and in 2020 was designated a member of the New York State Constitutional Bench.

“The Law Department plays an indispensable role in providing the legal architecture needed for the administration to carry out its vision. Sylvia Hinds-Radix has not only the brilliant legal mind, but also the emotional intelligence needed to lead the department as our next corporation counsel. I congratulate her on her history-making appointment,” said Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams is sworn in by Hon. Sylvia-Hinds Radix at the New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square. Photo by Ben Hider/Invision/AP

“I am honored to have been nominated by Mayor Eric Adams to undertake this tremendous responsibility of representing the people of this great city, as New York City’s corporation counsel. At this particular time in our history, with all of the challenges that we are facing, I look forward to ensuring that fairness and justice is carried out for the residents of the City of New York,” said Corporation Council Hinds-Radix.

Prior to her appointment to the Appellate Division, Hinds-Radix served as administrative judge for civil matters in the Second Judicial District for three and a half years. In her capacity as administrative judge, she oversaw both the New York State Supreme Court, Civil Term and the New York City Civil Court, which also encompasses the Housing Court of the City of New York.

Hinds-Radix was elected to the Supreme Court, Kings County in November 2004 and served as a New York City Civil Court Judge, from 2002 through 2004, spending her first year in the Criminal Court of Kings County. She began her legal career at District Council 37 Municipal Employees Legal Services.

Hinds-Radix earned a B.S. from the University of Massachusetts, a Masters from Long Island University, and a J.D. from Howard University School of Law. She was born in Barbados. She is also a former president of the Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association.

Under the City Charter, the nominee for Corporation Counsel must be confirmed by the City Council.