Richard R. White, counsel to Cyruli Shanks Hart & Zizmor, has been appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo to lead a new tenant protection unit at the state Homes and Community Renewal division. In a Feb. 17 statement, Mr. Cuomo said the new unit will “enforce landlord obligations to tenants and impose strict penalties for failure to comply” with rent laws and directives from the state agency. The new unit will “prevent problems and root out fraud that can wreak havoc in the lives of rent-regulated residents,” said Mr. Cuomo, who budgeted $4.8 million in the fiscal year starting April 1 for the unit. Mr. Cuomo’s office could not say how much Mr. White will be paid or how large the unit will be.
Mr. White, a Widener University School of Law graduate, specializes in corporate compliance and real estate litigation. He once served as deputy commissioner for investigation, trials and litigation in the New York City Department of Correction and as a senior trial attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
