Georgia M. Pestana has been confirmed by the city council as the new head of New York City’s Law Department, becoming the first woman and the first Latina to lead the agency responsible for handling most of the city’s legal affairs, according to a Law Department news release issued Thursday.

Pestana, who has spent 33 years working for the Law Department, also becomes its first leader “in modern history to be drawn from the ranks of the extraordinary career lawyers” who work there, Zachary Carter said in the news release. Carter is a former city corporation counsel who retired in 2019 after serving for nearly six years, one of the longest terms leading the agency in history.