Prior to co-founding Peters Brovner, Lesley Brovner served as First Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation (DOI) from 2014 to 2018. While in this role, Ms. Brovner directed complex criminal and civil investigations, oversaw the issuance of all agency reports and supervised DOI’s counsel’s office.
As First Deputy Commissioner, Ms. Brovner worked on a regular basis with senior prosecutors and regulators at numerous city and state agencies. This work resulted in the prosecutions of corporations and nonprofits that engaged in fraudulent activity as well as city workers involved in a variety of corrupt schemes. Ms. Brovner personally directed several major investigations, including:
• DOI’s Investigation into the City’s sale of Rivington House and whether the sale of that non-profit AIDS hospice was mismanaged or otherwise improperly influenced by contributors to the Mayor’s political campaign.
• DOI’s year-long examination into the NYPD’s failure to properly investigate sexual assault. The investigation resulted in City Council legislation requiring changes in NYPD practices.
• Multiple investigations of construction fatalities and other illegal conduct on construction sites. These investigations included work with the Construction Fraud Task Force which was jointly run by several of the City’s District Attorneys and DOI.
Prior to working at DOI, Ms. Brovner was a prosecutor for almost two decades at the New York State Attorney General’s Office and the Queens District Attorney’s Office. During that time she prosecuted numerous matters, including: political corruption, consumer fraud, tax fraud, antitrust violations, social security fraud and the unlicensed practice of nursing and medicine. Ms. Brovner also has extensive appellate experience including before the New York State Court of Appeals. Finally, Ms. Brovner served as the Chief Compliance Officer for the New York State Liquidation Bureau.
Ms. Brovner received her J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law. She received her B.A. from New York University.