Lesley Allison Brovner
Lesley Brovner is the co-founder of Peters Brovner LLP, a NYC-based boutique litigation firm focusing on civil litigation, internal investigations and regulatory matters.
Lesley represents corporations, nonprofits and individual clients in a wide range of investigations, regulatory matters and litigations. She regularly counsels clients facing crisis involving both legal and reputational risk. Clients look to her for strategic advice on how to best manage a diverse array of matters in public and private entities of every type, and in situations where the entities’ reputation and dollars are at risk. Her prior public service experience provides a unique perspective to help clients manage risk and handle regulatory issues.
Lesley represents individuals seeking redress from private entities and the government. She has successfully represented multiple victims of sexual abuse as against large private and public institutions including New York City, recovering millions of dollars in settlements for clients.
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, Lesley directed complex criminal and civil investigations, oversaw the issuance of all agency reports and supervised DOI’s counsel’s office.
As First Deputy Commissioner, Lesley 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. Lesley 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, Lesley 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. Lesley also has extensive appellate experience including before the New York State Court of Appeals. Finally, Lesley served as the Chief Compliance Officer for the New York State Liquidation Bureau.
Lesley received her J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law and her B.A. from New York University.