PROBED: Jack Lew has been confirmed as treasury secretary, but the process has brought NYU, which granted him a $1.4 million loan, under scrutiny. (
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WASHINGTON — NYU is lawyering up.
The school has retained one of DC’s top lawyers, specializing in congressional investigations, to help it field queries about its multimillion-dollar mortgage-loan program for faculty and execs, as well as its high executive pay and fat severance packages, The Post has learned.
The hiring of Steve Ryan comes after the Greenwich Village university became a focus of congressional inquiry during the confirmation hearing of Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, a former NYU executive.
Questions were raised after details of Lew’s $1.4 million loan from NYU were revealed by The Post and aspects of his compensation package emerged.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, is pushing NYU to release information on below-market loans, severance and other perks it provided top staffers and asking the school to reveal recipients of mortgage loans and severance pay.
Ryan, of the firm McDermott Will & Emery, is among the top in his field, also representing Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), who faces an ethics investigation after he belatedly reimbursed a top supporter nearly $60,000 for flights on a private jet to the Dominican Republic.
The lawyer also served on a government commission on organized crime and directed investigations against the Mafia during the Reagan administration.
“We are cooperating with the committee and hired Steve to help us with that process,” NYU spokesman Phil Lentz said, referring to the Senate Finance Committee.
NYU already has 23 people listed with some version of the title “counsel” on the Web page of its legal affairs department.
By hiring Ryan, who also did a stint as counsel for a top Senate investigating committee, the school will be able to leverage his knowledge of arcane congressional rules to keep embarrassing documents out of the public eye.
Grassley has requested every successful faculty loan application, plus information on how NYU structured below-market-rate loans and severance payments of over $100,000 — all of which could expose sensitive information.
Under Senate rules, certain information related to the legislative process must remain confidential unless it is used as part of official duties, including speeches and hearings.
The school, no stranger to navigating its way through DC, spent $450,000 on lobbying last year, disclosure reports reveal.
In a recent e-mail, NYU exec Martin Dorph revealed the school has outstanding loans to 168 people totaling $72 million.