Steven Banks focused much of his career on using the legal system to improve the lives of New Yorkers struggling to find or maintain a stable roof over their heads.

After a long stint as head attorney at the Legal Aid Society followed by nearly eight years as commissioner of what came to be known as the New York City Department of Social Services, Banks has now opted to enter the private sector, serving as a special counsel overseeing Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP's pro bono practice.

At DSS, Banks managed a staff of around 16,000 and oversaw an annual budget of $12 billion. During his tenure, he created a counsel program for low-income tenants and expanded initiatives to help address inequality and homelessness, including legal assistance for immigrants, cash and rental assistance, food assistance and Medicaid.

But many know Banks as a tireless advocate for those struggling to find a stable place to live, filing numerous lawsuits against New York City during his time at the Legal Aid Society that went a long way towards defining the city's legal obligations towards the unhoused.

Banks spoke with Law360 during his first week at Paul Weiss in February, where he shared his vision for his new role. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You spent years working for the Legal Aid Society, before entering public service in New York City. Tell me about why you chose to transition now to work for a law firm.

I've spent my entire career working on access to justice on behalf of clients, first at the Legal Aid Society and then as a city commissioner. This is now an extraordinary opportunity to continue to provide access to justice for clients who can't afford counsel through pro bono work at Paul Weiss, which has a storied history of public service through pro bono.

Why did you opt to work for Paul Weiss in particular?

Paul Weiss has an extraordinary program that combines impact litigation with individual representation and legal assistance, as well as transactional representation. Historically, the firm assisted Thurgood Marshall in Brown v. Board of Education. More recently, it provided the representation that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, providing marriage equality. During the Trump administration, the firm was at the border representing immigrants. Now it has been defending voting rights, it has been at the U.S. Supreme Court defending reproductive justice litigation.

I saw the firm's work firsthand when I was attorney in chief of the Legal Aid Society, directly co-counseling a case with Paul Weiss. It was part of a trilogy of cases striking down the unlawful practice of stop and frisk [in New York City]. Paul Weiss worked together with the Legal Aid Society to stop that practice. So I knew firsthand the impact of Paul Weiss' pro bono program, but even more importantly, pro bono and public service is in the DNA of the law firm. It's a place that I wanted to be, in terms of continuing to provide access to justice. There's an extraordinary pro bono staff and an unrivaled commitment by partners, associates and counsel to pro bono work.

Pro bono work can be done in different ways: There are firms that concentrate on the service side, while others focus more on larger cases, on class actions, on setting legal precedent. How will you concentrate Paul Weiss' pro bono work? Are there certain issues you will seek to focus on?

The great strength of Paul Weiss is that under [Chairman] Brad Karp's leadership, the firm does it all when it comes to pro bono, both impact work and individual work in litigation, counseling and transactional work. I'm looking forward to helping the firm build on the tremendous work that is already going on and expand on it. I've spent my professional career very much focused on addressing homelessness and on impact work to ensure that people have a roof over their heads with permanent housing. It's an area that's near and dear to my heart.

Do you have any specific goals for your own work at Paul Weiss or for what you hope to see the pro bono practice accomplish in the near term?

For me, it's a tremendous opportunity to help write the firm's next chapter in pro bono work, by both continuing the terrific work that is ongoing and by doing new work, as legal needs arise. One of the things I learned as the attorney in chief of the Legal Aid Society is that legal needs are unrelenting.

I've made no secret during the past couple of months that I've missed the practice of law, and I'm looking forward to doing the things that lawyers do, which is counseling clients in the first instance, and bringing litigation where needed.

For attorneys who work either at Paul Weiss or at other firms who may want to do more pro bono work but may struggle to do so, do you have advice on how they can find the time to do so?

The reason why I wanted to be at Paul Weiss is that Paul Weiss has a tradition, both historically and currently, of going above and beyond pro bono standards to provide access to justice. To me, it's not a question of numbers and statistics, it's a question of continuing the great traditions at this firm that have had such impactful results for clients over the years.

--Additional reporting by Matt Perez. Editing by Katherine Rautenberg.

All Access is a series of discussions with leaders in the access to justice field. Questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.

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