NYC Department of Investigation Names New Executives

Margaret Garnett

Margaret Garnett, the newly sworn-in commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation, has appointed her executive staff.

First Deputy Commissioner Daniel Cort and Deputy Commissioner of Investigations Dominick Zarrella started the week of Dec. 10. Deputy Commissioner for Legal Affairs and General Counsel Leslie Dubeck is joining the agency in January.

Cort was the chief of the Public Integrity Bureau at the state Attorney General's Office. During his tenure, prosecutions led to the convictions of several judges, a member of the state Assembly, a New York City councilmember and other officials. He began his career in 1988 as a litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York.

Zarrella was the chief investigator at the state Attorney General's Office. He was also with the New York City Police Department's detective squad from which he retired at the rank of lieutenant.

Dubeck was the general counsel to the state Attorney General's Office. Before that, she practiced appellate law at the New York offices of Jones Day. She was a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the Southern District of New York and Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Garnett was nominated by Mayor Bill de Blasio to be commissioner in November 2018 and confirmed by the City Council the same month. She most recently served as executive deputy attorney general for criminal justice at the state Attorney General's Office.