Civil Rights
We seek accountability for people and communities who have been harmed by systemic inequality and a flawed justice system. We know that the deck is often stacked against our clients, but also that exceptional and creative advocacy can overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. Our work includes leading large-scale impact litigations that challenge structural or systemic constitutional violations, representing people who have been wrongfully convicted and seeking accountability in connection with police and correctional officers’ misconduct.
IMPACT LITIGATION | WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS | POLICE MISCONDUCT & PRISONERS’ RIGHTS | DEFENDING DEMOCRACY
Impact Litigation
Certain harms are best remedied through high-profile litigation seeking system-wide change, large-scale damages, or both. We have experience leading these impact litigations on behalf of both individuals and classes of plaintiffs in state and federal courts across the country. This includes fast-paced, emergency litigation—often in multiple courts at the same time—where clients are seeking preliminary injunctive relief.
Representative experience includes:
Representing survivors of a mass shooting in a lawsuit seeking to hold gun manufacturers accountable for deceptive advertising and marketing practices that glorify and promote mass violence, including successfully arguing an appeal in the Fourth Circuit.
Representing a certified class of incarcerated people litigating a systemic Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment challenge to Virginia’s practice of housing prisoners in long-term solitary confinement. This suit comes on the heels of a precedent-setting win in an earlier case that ended the use of long-term solitary confinement on Virginia’s death row after extensive fact and expert discovery, two rounds of summary judgment briefing, and two wins before the Fourth Circuit.
Representing parallel class actions seeking monetary and injunctive relief on behalf of incarcerated people challenging the Virginia Department of Corrections’ calculation of release dates and sentence credits.
Serving as co-lead counsel in a class action challenging systemic Sixth Amendment violations across Idaho. This includes successfully arguing an appeal before the Idaho Supreme Court, which issued a first-of-its-kind opinion and adopted our proposed standard for relief, paving the way for other states to do the same.
Co-litigating a history-making class action settlement for 100+ Black U.S. Secret Service special agents who were discriminated against in hiring and promotions.
Challenging Kansas’s death penalty scheme via pre-trial state constitutional challenges on behalf of people charged with capital crimes.
Representing more than a dozen people sentenced to death in six states (Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia) and on federal death row in state and federal habeas proceedings alleging various constitutional violations, in addition to lethal injection and other end-stage challenges.
Wrongful Convictions
Police and prosecutorial misconduct and other flaws in the criminal legal system too often lead to the wrongful conviction and lengthy incarceration of innocent people. We have represented several individuals in connection with their claims of actual innocence and efforts to hold law enforcement accountable for the misconduct that led to their wrongful convictions.
Our representation of the wrongfully accused includes:
Securing the then-largest jury verdict in a wrongful conviction case in U.S. history ($75 million) on behalf of Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, two intellectually disabled brothers coerced into signing false confessions as teenagers. Henry was the longest serving prisoner on North Carolina’s death row, and Leon was the youngest person ever to serve on the state’s death row.
Representing Curtis Flowers, who became the subject of the Peabody Award-winning season 2 of the In the Dark podcast, in connection with his state post-conviction petition. Mr. Flowers is an innocent man who was tried an unprecedented six times for a quadruple murder that he did not commit by an overzealous prosecutor. We spearheaded an 18-month long investigation that uncovered an astonishing track record of misconduct by nearly every state actor involved in Mr. Flowers’s prosecution, and litigated dozens of claims for relief, involving everything from law enforcement’s failure to turn over key evidence, to undisclosed payments to jailhouse informants, to junk science, to ineffective assistance of counsel, to unconstitutional striking of jurors on the basis of their race. After his conviction was overturned by the United States Supreme Court, we litigated a Section 1983 suit on his behalf.
Representing Adnan Syed, whose case was the subject of the viral Serial podcast, in connection with post-conviction litigation alleging that his lawyer failed to provide constitutionally adequate counsel at his trial.
Police Misconduct & Prisoners’ Rights
Law enforcement, correctional officers, and prison administrators are bound by state and federal laws that guarantee people’s constitutional and civil rights. We hold government officials accountable for their violations of these laws and related abuses of power, including through suits challenging excessive force, unconstitutional medical care, police brutality, First Amendment violations, and other unconstitutional conduct.
Our efforts to remedy these constitutional violations include:
Representing clients against municipalities and private medical providers in connection with their failure to provide adequate medical care under the Eighth Amendment.
Representing prisoners seeking to hold corrections officials accountable for excessive force and failure to protect.
Representing victims of police brutality, excessive force, and other unconstitutional policing practices.
Representing a prisoner on federal death row challenging BOP’s refusal to grant spousal visitation in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and the First Amendment.
defending democracy
The health of our democracy depends on the rule of law: lawful and adequate process, accountable government actors, and institutions that can do their work without political interference. We bring civil rights and complex litigation experience to matters where executive action threatens constitutional structure, statutory protections, or the integrity of independent institutions.
We help clients assess potential claims quickly, develop a litigation strategy grounded in the record, and pursue effective remedies, including emergency relief when time is of the essence. When appropriate, we also coordinate legal strategy with reputational and communications considerations, understanding that democracy-facing disputes often unfold in public view.
These efforts include:
Representing plaintiffs and intervenors in connection with various challenges to state election procedures that threatened to suppress voters’ rights on the eve of election day, including emergency litigation in both trial and appellate courts to secure or defend against preliminary injunctive relief.
Filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit addressing constitutional limits on removal power and the importance of for-cause protections for adjudicatory bodies that safeguard a merit-based civil service.
Seeking injunctive relief on behalf of plaintiffs in federal court litigation challenging executive-branch actions affecting an independent institution, including claims sounding in ultra vires action, the Administrative Procedure Act, and separation-of-powers principles, and seeking emergency injunctive relief to prevent irreparable harm.
Advising an entity facing a credible threat of a retaliatory executive order, including potential constitutional bases for challenging the order and planning for a strategic media response.
