 Kirwan had a reputation as a "reformer" after a 2007 lawsuit where he and Democratic State Senator Liz Krueger joined together to sue Silver, former Governor of New York George Pataki and then Senate Leader Joe Bruno over the infamous legislative dysfunction at the New York State Capitol in Albany, citing disenfranchisement of minority party members of both houses.A pair of suits accused Senate and Assembly leadership of stifling minority legislators by not providing them equal resources for staff, withholding funds for member items, and making it impossible for minority legislators to have their bills heard in legislative committees for vote in their respective houses.Although the plaintiffs were initially successful, because Kirwan lost his seat in 2008, appeals on the suit were never decided by the courts, and the New York State Legislature is still widely criticized by good government groups such as New York University's Brennan Center for Justice as "the most dysfunctional legislature in the United States of America".