Profile

Stephen Louis had nearly four decades of experience working in local government law at the New York City Law Department. As a member, and later as chief of the office’s Legal Counsel Division and Executive Assistant Corporation Counsel, he provided advice to five mayoral administrations, 10 Corporation Counsels, and numerous elected and appointed officials, including the City Council, Comptrollers, Public Advocates, Borough Presidents, Charter Revision Commissions, and heads of every City agency. He has worked on virtually every area of municipal law, providing legal advice in support of local policy initiatives. In addition to counseling, he and the attorneys he supervised were responsible for drafting federal, state and local legislation on behalf of New York City and its agencies, and they assisted in the drafting and promulgation of agency rules. Among other projects, he led the legal analysis and legislative drafting that resulted in the passage of the New York City Campaign Finance Act in 1988, among the first municipal public campaign financing laws in the nation. He also worked for several years at the law firm of Lord Day & Lord, Barrett Smith, in its real estate department, drafting and negotiating eases, construction agreements, and city capital funding agreements.

On behalf of the New York City Law Department, he has served on the Board of Directors of the County Attorneys’ Association of the State of New York, including a term as President, and has represented the City at the International Municipal Lawyers Association. He has served on several committees of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, serving as chair of its Government Counsel committee. He has been a member of the NYLS adjunct faculty since 2013, co-teaching State and Local Government Law. He previously served as an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School.