NEW YORK, Nov 9 (Reuters) - A former Brooklyn federal
prosecutor and the co-founder of a white-collar defense firm
was named Wednesday to oversee the implementation of new
court-ordered hiring and recruitment procedures at the New York City Fire Department.
U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis chose Mark Cohen from
a list of 12 individuals and groups screened by the court over
the last several weeks as possible candidates to serve as the
court-appointed monitor, according to a court order issued
Wednesday.
Cohen is currently the head of two practice groups --
litigation and arbitration, and white-collar defense,
regulatory enforcement and internal investigations -- at Cohen
& Gresser, a New York-based law firm specializing in complex
litigation, corporate law, intellectual property and corporate
transactions. Cohen is a partner in the firm, which he helped
co-found in 2002.
Cohen previously worked at Fried Frank Harris Shriver &
Jacobson, and he served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the
criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern
District of New York. He received his undergraduate degree from
Cornell University and graduated magna cum laude from the
University of Michigan Law School, according to the court.
Garaufis created the monitor position in an October draft
remedial order, which called for a top-to-bottom overhaul of
how the fire department recruits and hires firefighters. The
order came in response to previous court findings that existing
processes put black and Hispanic candidates at a significant
disadvantage compared to whites.
NO AGREEMENT ON MONITOR
The city and the plaintiffs -- represented by the U.S.
Department of Justice and the Vulcan Society, a fraternal
organization of black firefighters -- each offered at least
three nominees for the monitor position.
The court included some of its own candidates, and
interviewed 12 individuals and groups in all, according to
Garaufis. But "despite the court's best efforts and the
impressive qualifications of this truly exceptional group of
applicants, the parties were not able to agree on any one
candidate," Garaufis wrote.
Darius Charney, an attorney with the Center for
Constitutional Rights, which represents the Vulcan Society,
said his side had not nominated Cohen, and he had not seen him
on the city's list of nominees.
Nevertheless he was satisfied with the choice. "We think
he's up to the task, and we trust the judge's judgment,"
Charney said.
Neither the city nor the federal government objected to
Cohen's appointment, according to Garaufis. Georgia Pestana,
chief of the labor and employment law of the New York City Law
Department, said in a statement that while the city did not
have any issue with Cohen, it "does not agree that any monitor
is warranted."
The city still intends to appeal the appointment of the
monitor along with the rest of Garaufis' October 5 remedial
order addressing the fire-department hiring changes, Pestana
said.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New
York had no comment. Cohen could not immediately be reached for
comment Wednesday afternoon.
The case is United States v. City of New York, in the U.S.
District Court for the Eastern District of New York, no.
07-2067.
For the United States: Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elliot
Schachner, Michael Goldberger and David Eskew for the U.S.
Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York; and Eric
Bachman, Sharon Seeley, Allan Townsend, Barbara Schwabauer,
Jennifer Swedish, Meredith Burrell and Varda Hussain of the
U.S. Department of Justice.
For the Vulcan Society: Richard Levy, Dana Lossia and
Robert Stroup of Levy Ratner; Anjana Samant and Darius Charney
for the Center for Constitutional Rights; and Judith Scolnick
of Scott and Scott.
For New York City: Assistant Corporation Counsel Georgia
Pestana, William Fraenkel, Edward Sample, James Lemonedes, Kami
Barker, Kathleen Comfrey, Patricia Miller and Vivien Ranada.
(Reporting by Jessica Dye)
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