By JAMES FINK
jfink@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1611

The daughter of former New York State Assembly Deputy Speaker Arthur Eve was tapped by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to serve as senior vice president and counsel for Empire State Development Corp.

Like her father, Leecia Eve is a force in the local and statewide Democratic Party. She is a 1990 graduate of Harvard University Law School and served as Senate counsel to then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and as Judiciary Committee counsel to then-Sen. Joseph Biden Jr.

Four years ago, Eve was briefly a candidate for lieutenant governor. If she had won, she would have been on the Democratic Party ticket with Eliot Spitzer. She dropped her campaign, however, opening the door for David Paterson to serve as lieutenant governor and then governor.

"Ms. Eve's extensive expertise and knowledge of economic issues in New York, across the nation and abroad will be instrumental in reopening New York State to business," Cuomo said in a prepared release. "Her decades of legal experience, combined with an intrinsic understanding of our state's diverse economic needs, will help businesses thrive and prosper. I thank her for her ongoing commitment to public service."

Eve most recently served as vice president for policy of the No Limits Foundation. The not for profit promotes economic issues at home and abroad and advocates transforming American foreign policy around the world, including advancing the rights of women. She has spoken nationally about investing in the nation's infrastructure to improve economic competitiveness and create jobs.

Besides her Harvard law degree, she is a graduate of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and an expert on issues ranging from economic development to homeland security. She is a former partner in Hodgson Russ LLP. She also served as judicial clerk to New York State Court of Appeals Judge Fritz W. Alexander II.

A resident of Buffalo, she has served on the boards of the Community Service Society of New York, Greater Buffalo chapter of the American Red Cross, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens Society. She also is former vice president of the Minority Bar Association of Western New York and a member of The Links Inc., Buffalo chapter.