A close ally of Mayor Zohran Mamdani — who will help him pick judicial nominees — is a “special” adviser for a Manhattan law firm accused of being involved in a massive insurance fraud scheme, The Post has learned.
Ali Najmi — an election attorney whom Hizzoner had referred to as his “brother” and who was a key part of the Democratic socialist’s rise to power — joined the personal injury firm Liakas Law, PC, on the eve of the November election.
Experts said Najmi’s role as “special counsel” alone raises ethical questions — pointing out that the arrangement appears similar to that of corrupt former state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who was “of consul” to a major personal injury firm and collected millions despite never performing legal work.
Liakas Law now also faces a federal suit accusing it of operating as a “fraudulent enterprise that targets immigrants and individuals of limited means” through “sham lawsuits and inflated medical bills.”
“The last thing New Yorkers need is a Shelly Silver part 2,” said Tom Stebbins, head of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York.
“The potential conflicts of interest here are innumerable.”
Among the possible conflicts of interest are that a top City Hall aide moonlighting as “special counsel” to a law firm could potentially try to influence the mayor’s position on an array of issues affecting the practice’s bottom line, insiders said.
The title is roughly the same as the “of counsel” role held by Silver, who had a decades-long relationship to top asbestos firm Weitz & Luxembourg, and other attorneys who serve as advisers or consultants to law firms.
Silver used his powerful role to not only push policies that aided the legal practice — like blocking tort reform — but also to steer the firm’s cases toward friendly judges who owed their careers to the consummate backroom gladhander.
Najmi also now has a direct hand in screening judicial nominees, since Mamdani appointed him in January as chairman of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary, which is tasked with naming lawyers to the bench in family and civil courts, as well as naming interim appointees for criminal courts.
Silver appointed his firm’s partner to a similar committee in 2008.
“[Silver] was ‘of counsel’ for years and never worked a case,” one source said — adding that the idea that a plaintiff’s attorney would help screen judicial nominees was “nuts.”
For Silver, the title meant raking in over $3 million in referral fees while he served as one of the most powerful players in Albany for years.
Najmi joined Liakas as “special counsel” in October 2025, according to his LinkedIn profile, just before Mamdani was elected mayor.
“Every morning when I walk into Liakas Law, I’m reminded why I chose this work,” Najmi said in an ad-like video on his Instagram account showing him high-fiving people.
He also maintains his own private firm where he specializes in criminal defense, civil rights and election law.
Najmi, who repped Mamdani’s prior Assembly campaigns, rose to power in the Queens Democratic electoral machine over the last decade. He repped more than a dozen campaigns during the June primary last year.
One of Mamdani’s first forays into politics was working on Najmi’s failed run for a Queens City Council seat more than a decade ago, and the two have remained close since, insiders said.
City Hall did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.
The lawsuit against Liakas, filed last week in Brooklyn federal court by the Greater New York Mutual Insurance Company, claims the firm recruited plaintiffs — often especially vulnerable undocumented migrants — to fake accidents and injuries, and then used “falsified medical documentation to inflate claims.”
The lawsuit contains several examples of clients claiming debilitating injuries, but then appearing in photographs at bars or playing sports.
One Liakas client testified at trial that “he was disabled to the point he was unable to put on underwear without assistance,” the suit claims.
But two photos in the filing claim to show the client at a bar celebrating a soccer match two months after the alleged 2020 accident — and another with his soccer team just a month after his testimony.
Last year, Liakas filed roughly 20 lawsuits against New York City — and the firm has over 50 active cases before the city, according to court records.
Court watchers said that immediately raises eyebrows — especially since Najmi’s new role in City Hall will hold sway over judicial nominees.
“How could his affiliation with a plaintiff’s firm, and the money that he’s getting from a plaintiff’s firm, not tilt his perspective towards the plaintiff?” Stebbins said.
In a statement, Najmi told The Post, “I am not associated with the frivolous litigation attack against the firm which started long before I joined.”
Hank Sheinkopf, spokesperson for Liakas, said the suit was “baseless” and that “the case [will] fall apart once judicial scrutiny is applied.”
Last month, the federal government filed a false claims lawsuit against Liakas, stating that the firm unlawfully took $1.09 million in PPP loans — and was now liable for damages of $3.29 million.
New Yorkers spent $96 billion in excessive litigation last year, according to a tort reform group that labeled the state court system the second-worst “Judicial Hellhole” in the nation.
“We have a massive ‘fraudemic’ that is happening on our streets and in our construction sites,” Stebbins said.
“And the last thing we need is to have the politicians potentially benefiting from it.”
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