Underpaid NYC Public Defenders Demand Raises From Mayor

NEW YORK CITY HALL — While they work each day to represent New York City's most vulnerable defendants, public defenders say their low pay relative to the prosecutors and city lawyers they battle in court somtimes forces them to take second jobs.

"Because we make so much less than the lawyers that we practice across the courtroom from at the Law Department, we're also you're Uber drivers, we're your babysitters, we're your dog-walkers, we're your teachers," said Jared Trujillo, the president of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, a labor union.

Now the lawyers want a helping hand from the city. More than three dozen attorneys and other advocates called on Mayor Bill de Blasio Thursday to include $50 million in the upcoming city budget to boost salaries for legal-services workers.

That amount would bring the pay of thousands of lawyers representing needy New Yorkers in criminal, housing and immigration proceedings up to par with the lawyers who represent the city in the Office of the Corporation Counsel, according to Tina Luongo, the attorney-in-charge of the Legal Aid Society's Criminal Defense Practice.

Public defenders in the city get starting salaries thousands of dollars less than Corporation Counsel lawyers, but they face the same high costs for housing, child care and student loan debt, attorneys say.

The city's public defenders also reportedly make far less than their counterparts in other cities. A public defender in Oakland, California gets a starting salary of $98,000 while a first-year Legal Aid attorney gets $62,000, said Stan Germán, the executive director of New York County Defender Services.

Raising pay would help legal-services organizations attract and retain lawyers and allow them to better serve clients, advocates argue.

"They are some of the best legal minds in New York City defending people who need their expertise the most, people who have been disenfranchised the most, but they are getting paid the least," Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said at a Thursday rally outside City Hall.

The City Council has called for putting $15 million toward pay parity for public defenders, but Legal Aid says de Blasio's executive budget includes no money for that purpose. The Council also recommended a $5 million boost for assistant district attorneys' salaries on top of the $5 million that went into the current city budget.

De Blasio spokesman Raul Contreras said City Hall is discussing the issue with the Council amid negotiations over the city budget for the 2020 fiscal year, which must be adopted by July 1.

"The City negotiates directly with providers and funds the agreed upon amount," Contreras said in a statement. "Under this Administration, we’ve increased their contracts by $44.2 million. Conversations with the Council about this issue are ongoing."