Metro

De Blasio picks ex-thorn to run HRA

If you can’t beat ’em, hire ’em.

A longtime Legal Aid Society lawyer who filed a slew of lawsuits against the city on behalf of needy New Yorkers has been tapped to head the city agency that oversees social services.

Steve Banks was appointed commissioner of the Human Resources Administration by Mayor de Blasio on Friday, giving him a chance to rework from the inside the agency he’s been tangling with for decades.

“I’ve been at the Legal Aid Society through five mayoral administrations and this is the first one I’m not going to bring a lawsuit against,” Banks said.

The mayor defended the lawsuits brought by Banks, saying, “He challenged government policies that didn’t make a lot of sense.”

Now the attorney-in-chief at Legal Aid, Banks was credited with helping to settle a long legal battle with the city in 2008 over the right of the homeless to obtain shelter.

De Blasio also appointed lawyer Nisha Agarwal as commissioner of Immigrant Affairs, and reappointed Lorraine Grillo as president of the School Construction Authority.