Hundreds of public defenders go on strike

Legal aid attorneys rallied outside New York Supreme Court as 400 union members go on strike Eagle photo by Noah Powelson

By Noah Powelson

The prospect of the largest public defender strike in 30 years grew likelier Tuesday as hundreds of attorneys across a trio of organizations walked out of their offices and took to the picket line.

Over 400 attorneys took to the streets on Tuesday as three public defender unions officially walked out of their office and went on strike, joining one other union that initiated a strike earlier this week. Attorneys and non-attorney staff from the New York Legal Assistance Group, the Urban Justice Center and CAMBA went on strike Tuesday and rallied at Foley Square outside the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan.

The three union groups join attorneys at Goddard Riverside Law Project, who went on strike on July 9 after they rejected a final labor contract offer from their employer.

The four unions currently on strike account for around 400 legal services attorneys. Around 280 of those striking attorneys work for NYLAG, the largest union shop to strike thus far.

The strike could grow in the coming days and may well become the largest legal services strike the city has seen since the early 1990s.

Six different Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys shops, including the four on strike, have set strike deadlines in the past several weeks. Attorneys with the Legal Aid Society, who have not set a strike deadline, also have inched closer to striking in the past several weeks. Their approximately 1,100 attorneys could hit the picket line as early as Friday.

Union demands vary between organizations but share major similarities, like baking cost-of-living adjustments, lower health care premiums and a higher wage floor for attorneys and non-attorney staff into the now-expired labor contracts, all of which expired at the end of last month.

At NYLAG, the union has demanded a base wage floor of $70,000 per year for all attorney and non-attorney staff and a five percent cost of living adjustment, as well as a freedom of speech clause, among other provisions.

Both NYLAG and the union have said management has offered a higher wage floor than what is currently paid to attorneys and cost-of-living adjustments, but current counter-offers are still well-below union demands.

Navruz Baum, a member of the union’s bargaining committee at NYLAG, told the Eagle they were bargaining with NYLAG management until 10 p.m. on Monday, July 14, but no progress was made. The strike was issued the next morning. Only a handful of supervisors and non-striking NYLAG employees remain working at the legal services organization.

“They are going to try and operate with supervisors, but it’s not going to work,” Baum told the Eagle. “If we are overworked, then there is no way supervisors can manage it.”

In a public statement, NYLAG said they have made over 45 tentative agreements to increase wages and maintain current health insurance premiums despite “systemic underfunding from the city which holds the majority of our contracts.”

“It is deeply disheartening that the union has chosen to strike,” a NYLAG spokesperson said. “No one knows the urgency of our clients’ needs better than our staff. Instead of walking away from the New Yorkers in nearly every community whose basic rights are under siege right now, we hope the Union will return to the table and bargain in good faith with us, so that we can continue to serve the New Yorkers for whom accessing and achieving justice depends on the courageous work our employees do every day.”

Baum told the Eagle they had made several attempts to schedule a new bargaining session, but NYLAG management has not yet responded. Baum also said that a strike will be very difficult on clients, but NYLAG has had severe retention problems that also hurts clients as they are moved from new attorney to new attorney. A contract that lowers each attorney’s caseload will improve retention and allow attorneys to devote proper time and resources to each client, Baum said.

“We don’t want to go on strike,” Baum told the Eagle. “Client interests and attorney interests work hand in hand. Our clients deserve better, they deserve attorneys with a reasonable workload."

A NYLAG spokesperson told the Eagle they are waiting for a counteroffer from the union.

While a major escalation in negotiations, the 400 picketing out on the street represent less than a fourth of those that could be on strike unless several deals are made in the coming days.

New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks at an Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys rally on Tuesday, July 15, 2025. Photo via ALAA/X

The Office of the Appellate Defender, Appellate Advocates, the Center for Appellate Litigation and Bronx Defenders have all issued strike deadlines for Friday, July 18. Additionally, the Legal Aid Society, the largest public defender organization in the city, notified their employer they are terminating their collective bargaining agreement on July 18 unless a deal is made. The move isn’t the same as setting a strike deadline, but clears the way for the union to do so after the contract is terminated.

If Legal Aid and the other four unions join the strike, as many as 2,000 union members could join the picket line, the largest mass strike of public defenders in the city in 30 years.

The last time the city experienced a strike of this scale took place was in 1994 when 1,100 LAS attorneys walked out of the job. Then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani terminated the city’s contract with the LAS and asked other legal services providers to apply for the contract, and a variety of new legal aid organizations formed to fill the need.

Now, the city potentially faces a much larger public defender strike. However, the city has yet to detail exactly how they’d ensure representation for low-income New Yorkers in Housing, Family, Criminal, Civil and Appellate Court should the mass strike begin.

Union representatives told the Eagle that ALAA has amassed a significant strike fund that will help pay members and provide healthcare if need be, fueling union members support for a strike.

“A strike is one of the hardest decisions any union member can make. But we’re on the cusp of the largest strike in New York City for years…but only because it’s become necessary,” UAW Region 9A Director Brandon Mancilla said during the rally on Tuesday. “There’s still time to reach deals and there’s still time to end these strikes before they go long…The city needs to understand a few extra dollars won’t be enough.”

While the city is not party to the negotiations between legal aid organizations and union chapters, Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council have been a focus of union demonstrations as organizers have demanded the city expand legal aid funding.

In the city’s 2026 Executive Budget, the Adams administration added $20 million in criminal legal service funding and baselined $10 million for civil legal service providers. Union representatives have said the additional funding has enabled bargaining to progress with better deals for workers, but is still below the unions’ demands.

“The Adams administration values the work that legal service providers do every day to advocate for vulnerable New Yorkers and ensure that they have access to legal representation and justice,” a City Hall spokesperson said in a statement. “We encourage all parties involved to resolve these issues as soon as possible so that New Yorkers can continue to depend on the crucial services they offer.”

At the Tuesday rally, organizers from the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys called on the city to tap into the budget reserve to adequately fund legal service organizations and enable strike deals to come through. The budget reserve is an unallocated amount of funds the city saves for last minute emergencies. The city currently has saved $2 billion in its rainy-day fund.

They were joined by Attorney General Letitia James, City Councilmember Justin Brannan, City Councilmember Carmen De La Rosa, Assemblymembers Claire Valdez, Andrew Hevesi, Jessica González-Rojas and Queens Assemblymember and Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani.

James, who was a former ALAA member, called on the mayor to use the city’s budget reserve for legal aid organizations. James, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, said that ensuring a mass strike doesn’t come to fruition is necessary, if only to ensure immigration attorneys continue representing those the Trump administration has attempted to deport on a mass scale.

“What individuals need now more than ever is someone on their side, and that is a legal aid attorney,” James said during the Tuesday rally. “When this contract is resolved, all of us must march into these streets, march into these courts, and demand that we defend this democracy, defend the rule of law, defend against all of the abuses from this government and let them know this too is our country and we’re not going to sit idle by and let anyone trespass on the rights of our clients.”

Mamdani, who was endorsed by the union, has made several appearances during union rallies. On Tuesday, the mayoral candidate said public defenders were the front line of protecting families and immigrants in the city, and pledged his continued support for the union.

“We have to use every single tool at our disposal to protect this city, to protect its people,” Mamdani said. “For too long we have asked people to engage in public service at the expense of themselves. We have asked ourselves questions that we all know the answers to. ‘Why are we struggling to attract new applications? Why are we struggling to retain the existing work force?’ Because this is not work that is paying people enough to stay in this city.”