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Randy Mastro
American attorney and government official From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Randy M. Mastro (born August 21, 1956) is an American attorney and government official who serves as first deputy mayor of New York City under mayor Eric Adams. He had previously served as chief of staff and deputy mayor for operations for New York City under mayor Rudy Giuliani.
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Early life and education
Mastro was raised in Peapack-Gladstone, New Jersey. His father, Julius Mastro, was a professor of political science at Drew University.[4]
He attended Yale University, then earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania.[4]
Career
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Mastro served as Giuliani's chief of staff from 1994 to 1996, then became deputy mayor for operations, a new position, until 1998.[5][6] He was a Democrat in Giuliani's Republican administration, which allowed him a peacekeeping role despite his aggressive style. He was regarded as the "administration's conscience" by another city official.[7]
From March 1985 through November 1989, Mastro served as an Assistant United States Attorney and Deputy Chief of the Civil Division in the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York. In 1989 he led the federal government's racketeering suit against the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.[8]
In 1995, Mastro was serving as the Mayor's Chief of Staff when he led a crackdown on mob activity in the city, specifically within the Fulton Fish Market. Mastro organized new regulations to improve how permitting, leasing and trucking would work at the facility so that the city could have more enforcement against suspected mafia activity.[9][10] He also led public efforts to hinder organized crime at the San Gennaro Festival in Little Italy and reform the sex industry in the city. He and his family were assigned police bodyguards during his campaigns against organized crime.[7]
Mastro represented then-New York city council member Bill de Blasio in an unsuccessful 2008 suit to halt New York City's expansion of term limits for then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg. His firm later represented de Blasio as public advocate in a suit to stop the closure of Long Island College Hospital.[11]
Before and after his tenure at the Mayor's office, Mastro was a partner at Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher, one of the country's largest law firms, where he led the litigation department. In 2014, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie selected Mastro to lead an internal investigation after the Fort Lee lane closure scandal came to light. Mastro's firm billed the state $8 million for the inquiry, which cleared Christie of wrongdoing, though a federal judge later criticized it for lack of documentation.[12][13]
In 2022 he then went to work as a partner at King & Spalding, another of the country's largest law firms. Mastro represented several major companies, including Amazon and Chevron.[14] He defended Madison Square Garden Entertainment in a suit filed by the attorney Larry Hutcher after the venue banned 60 lawyers involved in pending litigation against it.[15]
On July 30, 2024, Mastro was nominated to be the corporation counsel for New York City by mayor Eric Adams, but he withdrew his nomination two months later after many city council members announced their opposition.[16][17]
Throughout 2024, Mastro represented the state of New Jersey as it sued to halt New York's congestion pricing plan for Lower Manhattan. The state's objections were repeatedly denied by U.S. Senior Judge Leo M. Gordon.[18][19]
On March 20, 2025, Mastro was appointed first deputy mayor of New York City by mayor Eric Adams,[20] and oversees important parts of the mayor's agenda including combating antisemitism, reducing fines for small landlords and delaying the destruction of a garden on the Lower East Side.[21]
Mastro has taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Fordham University School of Law.[22]
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Personal life
Mastro lives on Manhattan's Upper East Side. In 1994, he married Jonine Lisa Bernstein, an epidemiologist.[4]
In 2015, Mastro served alongside Alec Baldwin as co-chair of the Hamptons International Film Festival.[22] In 2020, several vandals spray-painted the exterior of his home in retaliation for his involvement in a suit to close a homeless shelter on West 79th Street.[23]
From 2016 to 2025 Mastro chaired the Citizens Union, a non-partisan group promoting local government accountability in New York City. He has also served as vice chair of the Legal Aid Society and on the board of advisors of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the board of the City University of New York.[24]
References
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