Highlights

Through our longstanding pro bono practice, Cravath lawyers are making high‑impact contributions that are advancing justice and improving clients’ lives. In 2024, Cravath dedicated more than 30,000 hours to pro bono service. Highlights from recent years include:

United States v. Jefferson County: Four Decades of Justice

After nearly 40 years of dedication from generations of Cravath attorneys, the Firm brought to a close its representation of African American and female plaintiffs in pro bono litigation related to employment discrimination in Birmingham, Alabama. Our work started in 1983 led by the late Bob Joffe, a former Presiding Partner. In 1992, then-partner Rowan Wilson took over the case, which he led until 2017 when he joined the New York Court of Appeals. In December 2020, the court granted the parties’ motion to terminate the last remaining piece of the litigation—a consent decree with Jefferson County—following years of negotiation and tangible strides by the County toward ensuring future hiring and promotion occur without discrimination.  For more history and information on this case, please click here.

Clearing the Path for New Yorkers with Disabilities

On July 23, 2019, Cravath and Disability Rights Advocates (“DRA”) announced that the Honorable Judge George B. Daniels of the Southern District of New York approved a historic class action settlement that establishes a comprehensive remedial plan to dramatically improve sidewalk accessibility for New York City’s disability community. The settlement stems from and resolves two separate class action lawsuits filed in 1994 and 2014. Cravath, alongside DRA, represented seven disability rights organizations that signed onto the agreement, which requires a comprehensive citywide survey to identify which corners need curb cuts installed or upgraded, and a comprehensive schedule for completing the necessary work. An outside monitor will oversee the agreement.

On February 4, 2020, in a suit brought by Cravath and Disability Rights Advocates (“DRA”) on behalf of Disabled in Action of Metropolitan New York, the Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled and individual plaintiffs, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that the New York Police Department violated federal law under the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to make police stations accessible to individuals with mobility disabilities. The victory could result in expanded access and accommodations at police stations throughout the city.

A Class‑Action Lawsuit on Behalf of Juvenile Offenders

Cravath is representing eight “juvenile lifers”—individuals sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after committing homicide offenses in New York when under 18 years of age—in a class action suit against the Commissioners of the New York Board of Parole. The suit claims the Parole Board violates the class members’ constitutional rights by making parole determinations that are not based on “demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation,” as is legally required for juvenile lifers. On September 20, 2019, the Honorable Judge Vincent L. Briccetti of the Southern District of New York denied the Board’s motion to dismiss the first two counts of the plaintiffs’ complaint: the Eighth Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment) claim and the Fourteenth Amendment (due process) claim, while granting defendants’ motion to dismiss the third count of the complaint, the Sixth Amendment (right to trial by jury) claim. This means the class action will go forward on the first two counts and will now enter the discovery phase, an important step toward securing justice for the original eight plaintiffs and other class members.

Protecting the Rights of Children in Foster Care

On August 23, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that 19 children in a longstanding lawsuit could proceed as a class representing all children in the New York City foster care system, an important milestone for plaintiffs represented by Cravath on a pro bono basis alongside co‑counsel at A Better Childhood (“ABC”). Judge Kimba Wood issued the decision after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a prior ruling denying class certification in September 2023.

Cravath and ABC originally filed the class action lawsuit for injunctive relief on behalf of 19 named plaintiff children in the custody of New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (“ACS”), seeking to remedy the ongoing violation of the children’s rights under the Due Process Clause as well as various state and federal statutory provisions. The suit alleged that these violations cause children in foster care harm to their health, safety and well being, including long stays in foster care without a permanent home or family. After extensive discovery uncovering the systemic nature of these harmful practices, the plaintiff children moved for class certification under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(2). In 2021, the district court denied the motion, determining that both commonality and typicality were lacking.

On interlocutory appeal, the children argued that their common injury is the unreasonable risk of harm every child faces because of ACS’s practices; not, as the district court understood it, the unique outcomes each child received once that risk materialized. The Second Circuit agreed with the children, holding in its September 2023 decision that “whether an agency has a practice of departing from its stated policy in a manner that exhibits deliberate indifference to a known risk or specific duty may be a common question that can be answered on a class‑wide basis.” The panel further held that the district court erroneously “did not address the particular evidence relating to each of the proposed common practices” and that “the flaws in the district court’s commonality analysis also permeated its typicality assessment.”

Judge Wood’s latest August 2024 ruling allows the lawsuit to proceed as a class action based on the criteria issued by the Second Circuit.

Safe Haven for Sick Children: Children’s Hospital Program

In 2002, Cravath formed an interdisciplinary team with doctors and social workers at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx and Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York‑Presbyterian in Manhattan to address the needs of children and their families. We have handled almost 400 cases ranging from obtaining a humanitarian visa to negotiating housing needs and public assistance to facilitating special education—legal issues that directly affect children’s medical conditions.

Protecting Prisoners’ Rights

Cravath represented a former inmate in a federal civil rights suit, together with the Legal Aid Society. Our client, “Jane Doe,” was repeatedly raped and sexually abused by two New York City Department of Correction (“DOC”) officers while she was a pre‑trial detainee on Rikers Island. Because our client preserved physical evidence, one of the DOC officers was convicted of a criminal sex act, a felony charge. We filed the civil lawsuit in August 2018 against the City of New York and the DOC Officers, in both their individual and official capacities. Cravath assisted the client in reaching a substantial monetary settlement.

International Child Custody Case

On March 5, 2014, the United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Cravath client, Diana Montoya Alvarez, in an international custody dispute which made new law regarding application of equitable tolling to treaties in general and in particular to the “now settled” defense to a child’s return to her home country under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Cravath took the case as part of the pro bono work it regularly provides for Sanctuary for Families.

Landmark Homeless Families Litigation

In 2008, Cravath won a landmark settlement on behalf of homeless families with children. In this settlement, New York City finally acknowledged, after 25 years of litigation, that homeless families have a state constitutional right to shelter, and has agreed to an enforceable judgment that sets the legal parameters for emergency shelter for homeless people. A team of Cravath and Legal Aid Society attorneys achieved this landmark judgment. In honor of this important work, the Legal Aid Society presented Cravath with the 2008 Pro Bono Publico and Public Service Law Firm Award. Additionally, 15 Cravath partners, associates and paralegals received individual awards in recognition of their contributions to this matter.

School Partnership

In 2004, we sponsored and helped create a law‑themed public high school, the School for Law & Justice (SLJ), as a partner with The Urban Assembly, a groundbreaking organization that is rethinking and reorganizing inner‑city education in New York. SLJ graduated its first class in 2008, and in 2009 was ranked as the #1 unscreened high school in New York City by The New York Post. Our lawyers helped create the curriculum and continue to remain active in school life. They act as mentors to SLJ students, teach SAT preparation classes, judge moot court competitions and participate in the Lunch with Lawyers program - a discussion group on current events and issues. We also helped form the Adams Street Foundation (ASF), a 501(c)(3) corporation that uses funding from foundations and other sources to provide enrichment programs, summer internships and educational activities for SLJ students. One of our partners is on the ASF Board.

Representation to Individuals in Need

Cravath associates provide outstanding legal representation to individuals who do not have the means to hire counsel. In recent years they have:

• Obtained a six‑figure settlement and career resumption for a U.S. Postal Service worker who had faced racial discrimination and wrongful termination
• Reinstated Social Security benefits for a child with disabilities whose payments had been rescinded
• Facilitated the release of a prison inmate from solitary confinement, after he was wrongfully blamed for an incident in which corrections officers assaulted him
• Successfully defended a domestic violence survivor fighting vexatious litigation from her abusive ex‑boyfriend
• Obtained a substantial settlement for a worker with disabilities whose employer refused to restore her job after she returned from medical leave
• Convinced a judge to appoint their client as the executor of a grossly mismanaged estate
• Secured a travel visa for a child to come to the United States to be able to donate bone marrow to their sibling
• Helped a mother recover her deceased son’s wrongfully terminated benefits
• Secured a fixed automatic‑payment plan for a single mother whose ex‑husband had stopped paying child support
• Represented Muslim victims of hate crimes in civil litigation

Corporate Advice to Non‑Profit and Charitable Organizations

In addition to representing individual pro bono clients, associates also provide a wide range of free legal services to non-profit and charitable organizations. Recently they have:

• Facilitated the consolidation of two charitable organizations that work on behalf of military personnel and their families
• Provided governance advice to a non‑profit dedicated to helping youth aging out of the foster care system
• Helped incorporate a yoga non‑profit that offers free yoga classes to New Yorkers in underserved communities
• Represented a community‑development organization in contract negotiations with a larger, more powerful entity
• Created a template contract for an education non‑profit to use in its agreements with contributors, collaborators and clients
• Provided transactional advice to non‑profit organizations that provide services in developing countries
• Provided financing advice to a foundation that addresses the needs of orphans around the world by providing education, medical care and psycho‑social services
• Helped incorporate a non‑profit that promotes awareness of pediatric organ donation issues and funds related medical research
• Provided general corporate advice to a non‑profit that connects artists to charitable causes
• Provided real estate advice to an economic development organization that provides advocacy and services to businesses in Brooklyn neighborhoods to grow and create employment opportunities for local residents
• Helped incorporate a non‑profit that offers innovative solutions for women and girls living with obstetric fistula in sub‑Saharan Africa
• Negotiated a subcontract between a non‑profit and an architecture and urban design firm to explore multi‑scale, physical, and programmatic interventions to create safe neighborhoods within New York City