Add The New York Post on Google The MTA’s top lawyer is abruptly stepping down at the end of July with no successor immediately named — just months after The Post revealed the agency’s legal costs ballooned under her tenure.
MTA General Counsel Paige Graves — who made nearly $100,000 more than Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2025 — quietly announced her resignation in a June 30 email obtained by The Post.
“After fourteen remarkable years with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, I have decided that the time has come for me to begin a new chapter,” the email begins, noting that her last day with the agency will be July 31.
Graves’ departure caps a turbulent season for the transit authority’s legal department, coming on the heels of a Post investigation in May that detailed how the allegedly cash-strapped agency has outsourced millions of dollars in legal work to high-priced private law firms.
The MTA admitted it had paid more than $10 million to six law firms in recent years, but refused to reveal exactly how much in taxpayer cash was being used to pay outside lawyers to represent the agency.
Insiders couldn’t confirm the reason why Graves was leaving, but noted that the 30-day notice she gave was not typical.
“It seems like she’s been forced out,” the source said.
Normally a departure from MTA executive leadership would be announced months ahead of time — alongside a widespread notice that would include the name of the staffer’s successor, sources said.
Graves’ June 30 email, with the subject like “Farewell Announcement” was only circulated to 50 recipients, and sources said few inside the agency were event aware that she was stepping down.
The former Manhattan prosecutor has served as the MTA’s legal leader since 2022, leading a team of 350 attorneys, and was paid over $344,000 in 2025, according to public records.
By contrast, the governor’s salary last year was $250,000, while MTA CEO Janno Lieber earned almost $470,000 in total pay, records show.
Graves, a graduate of the Wharton School and Hofstra Law School, also cut her teeth as a forensic litigation consultant at “big four” accounting firm KPMG, and spent more than a decade climbing the legal ladder inside the public transit bureaucracy.
She previously served as vice president and general counsel for the MTA Bus Company and had a two-year stint at the Long Island Rail Road before taking the reins of the main agency’s legal arm.
