Newly-elected New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Friday appointed Barbadian-born Justice Sylvia O. Hinds-Radix as the City’s Corporation Counsel, becoming the first Caribbean-born woman to serve in that capacity in the City’s history.
As Corporation Counsel, Justice Hinds-Radix will lead the City’s 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, who currently serves as an Associate Justice of the New York State Appellate Division, Second Department, a position she was appointed to in 2012, conducted the Mayor’s swearing-in ceremony, on January 2 at the Times Square New Year’s Celebration in midtown Manhattan.
The eminent jurist, who, in 2020, was designated a member of the New York State Constitutional Bench, is highly likely to be confirmed as Corporation Counsel by the 51-member New York City Council.
“The Law Department plays an indispensable role in providing the legal architecture needed for the administration to carry out its vision,” said Mayor Adams, the second Black man to become Mayor of New York City after the late David N. Dinkins, in appointing Justice Hinds-Radix as Corporation Counsel.
“Sylvia Hinds-Radix has not only the brilliant legal min but also the emotional intelligence needed to lead the department as our next Corporation Counsel,” he added. “I congratulate her on her history-making appointment.”
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, the first and current president of the Brooklyn-based Caribbean American Lawyers Association (CALA)m was elected to the Supreme Court, Kings County (Brooklyn) in November of 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 (DC) 37 Municipal Employees Legal Services, where she was a supervising attorney. DC 37 is the largest union representing municipal workers in New York City.
In February 2021, New York’s Unified Court System’s Committee to Celebrate Black History Month, The Tribune Society Inc., and the Judicial Friends Association bestowed the Hon. Theodore “Ted” Jones Lifetime Achievement Award on Justice Hinds-Radix. She received the award during the groups’ annual Black History Month celebration.
ustice Hinds-Radix is married to Grenadian-born dentist, Dr. Joseph Radix
“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,” Justice Hinds-Radix told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) on her appointment.
“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 are carried out for the residents of the City of New York,” she added.
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