In selecting Zachary W. Carter as corporation counsel, Mr. de Blasio appeared to be taking a legal posture markedly different from that of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. That difference was underscored by a pledge on Sunday to reverse course on two of his predecessor's hardest-fought court battles: the litigation over the Police Department's stop-and-frisk practices and the lawsuit stemming from the Central Park Five case.
"We start with our values," Mr. de Blasio said. "We start with the positions we took and made public throughout the last year. We will drop the appeal on the stop-and-frisk case, because we think the judge was right about the reforms that we need to make. We will settle the Central Park Five case because a huge injustice was done."
Mr. Carter, 63, is a partner in the firm Dorsey & Whitney. He lives in Westchester County and plans to move to New York City, a spokesman for Mr. de Blasio said.
At the news conference, Mr. Carter said he and Mr. de Blasio share a belief in ensuring opportunities for the poor. "We've failed as a society when we do not meet the needs of the least advantaged."
He will replace Michael A. Cardozo, who has served as corporation counsel and overseen the Law Department through all three of Mr. Bloomberg's terms.
The announcement was the latest from Mr. de Blasio as he assembles his cabinet ahead of his swearing-in on Wednesday. The most anticipated remaining appointment is his choice for schools chancellor.
Mr. de Blasio chose William J. Bratton as police commissioner this month, returning him to the post he held almost two decades ago. Mr. Bratton and Mr. Carter are likely to play significant roles in shaping the new administration's positions on policing.
Under Mr. Cardozo, the city has been aggressive in defending its stop-and-frisk practices, even as it became clear that Mr. de Blasio would pursue a different course in the litigation.
In the case known as the Central Park Five, five black and Hispanic teenagers were convicted in the 1989 attack of a Central Park jogger. Their convictions were later thrown out. A $250 million suit against the prosecutors and the police has been pending for a decade.
As the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York from 1993 to 1999, Mr. Carter brought federal charges in the beating and torture of Mr. Louima in 1997 by police officers in a police station bathroom. Alan Vinegrad, who was the chief prosecutor in the case, said Mr. Carter "felt passionate about taking the case and what lay underneath it — the problem of excessive force by the Police Department." The abuse led to criminal convictions and an $8.7 million civil settlement by the Police Department.
Mr. Carter's tenure had no shortage of other high-profile cases, including the prosecution of the real Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort, and those responsible for the death that set off the Crown Heights riots in 1991.
The appointment of Mr. Carter was praised by critics of the Law Department's hard-line stance in suits against the Police Department.
"Under Cardozo, the policy has been to fight every police misconduct case tooth and nail," said Joel Berger, a former city lawyer who now represents plaintiffs in lawsuits against the Police Department. "I certainly hope that Carter will pay more attention to the causes of police misconduct lawsuits rather than just fighting them."
The Rev. Al Sharpton called the appointment an "unprecedented and huge step for progress."
"I know he was very concerned about the excesses of the stop and frisk program," said Frederick A. O. Schwarz Jr., a former corporation counsel who has known Mr. Carter since the 1980s and served with him on the boards of the Vera Institute and the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School.
Mr. Schwarz, who helped select Mr. Carter as a criminal court judge during the Koch administration, described him as a "winning personality" who cared about fairness and good government. "He was in law enforcement, but what he really cares about is justice," he said.
J. David Goodman contributed reporting.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: December 29, 2013
An earlier version of this article gave incorrect attribution regarding a statement that Mr. Carter would provide the "legal architecture" to carry out the new administration's plans. Mr. Carter said so, not Mr. de Blasio.
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