Every NYC mayor becomes a celebrity — but none have wanted an A-list life more than Eric Adams

New York City mayor Eric Adams is known to frequent celebrity haunts across the city and rub shoulders with the A-listers. Now he has a lawyer to match.

City Hall has hired attorney-to-the-stars Alex Spiro to represent the mayor in a lawsuit accusing him of sexually assaulting a fellow city employee in 1993. Mr Adams strenuously denies the allegations.

Spiro, who has represented clients such as Elon Musk, Megan Thee Stallion and Jay Z, charges up to $2,025 an hour for his services, and New York City taxpayers will foot the bill for Adams’ legal costs.

Even though the city has claimed it was getting a much-discounted rate, the decision has raised some eyebrows. Responding to questions about the hiring, Mr Adams seemed flattered to be among such illustrious company.

“I don’t know how one becomes a celebrity lawyer, am I a celebrity mayor?" he asked.

He’s certainly not the first to wonder.

All NYC mayors are celebrities, but Adams seems to lean into the role more than others.

A meticulous 2022 New York Times deep dive into the newly elected mayor’s nighttime habits found he had “become a fixture out after dark” around the city. Adams campaigned on a promise to revitalise a nightlife industry that had been battered by the pandemic, and he seems willing to do it single-handedly if necessary.

Adams is a regular at restaurant Osteria La Baia, an Italian restaurant in Midtown run by the mayor’s close friends, Robert and Zhan Petrosyants. The Times noted, after stalking the mayor, that Adams visited the restaurant 14 times in one month, where he “slips behind a frosted glass partition to a private table where he holds court.”

Maxwell Young, a spokesman for the mayor, told the Times: “Of course, there is nothing wrong with