Unionized attorneys at the second-largest public defender organization in the city voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike this week, increasing the risk of hundreds of lawyers and support staff walking off the job and hampering criminal courts in Queens and Brooklyn.
Read MoreLabor contracts for some of the city’s largest public defender organizations expired at midnight on Tuesday, raising the possibility for over 1,000 attorneys to walk off the job if a deal isn’t reached soon.
Read MoreThe founder and longtime executive director of Brooklyn Defender Services, the city’s second-largest public defense firm, will retire at the end of the year.
Read MoreWith just over a month until their contract expires, labor talks at Brooklyn Defender Services have stalled, prompting union attorneys to accuse management of bad-faith bargaining and raise the possibility of a strike.
Read MoreThe city’s largest criminal legal aid organizations joined a national protest on Thursday, warning the constitutional right to counsel is being “systematically dismantled” as public defenders across the country struggle to keep up with mounting cases.
Read MoreLeaders of some of the city’s largest public defense organizations warned last week that without at least $100 million in additional city funding, they’ll risk an exodus of attorneys that would leave low-income New Yorkers struggling to secure legal representation.
Read MoreOne of the city’s top public defender organizations recently faced backlash from its union after an announced candidate for director of their immigration practice sparked outrage.
Read MoreAttorneys at the city’s second-largest public defense group voted this week to formally call on their executive director to resign after she allegedly tried to break up their union.
Read MoreLabor tensions escalated on Thursday as elected city officials and union members called for the executive director of the city’s second-largest public defense group to step down, less than a week after she was accused of attempting to break up her organization’s attorneys’ union.
Read MoreLori Zeno, the former head of Queens Defenders accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars with her husband from the nonprofit she founded, has continued to siphon money from the organization as she awaits trial, according to the feds.
Read MoreThe boss of a top New York City public defense group tried to break up her organization's own attorney union by urging a lawyer to launch a competing one, union leaders alleged on Friday.
Read MoreThe organization that took over Queens Defenders legal defense contract continues to see problems, after union members took to the picket line again in response to new work policies.
Read MorePublic defense attorneys alleged on Tuesday that the Department of Correction consistently violates the rights of detainees by making it difficult for them to meet with their lawyers while being held on Rikers Island.
Read MoreAttorneys at Brooklyn Defender Services, the legal services group that absorbed Queens Defenders’ criminal practice last month, picketed their employer on Thursday over a recent change in employment policy.
Read MoreQueens Defenders officially had its criminal defense practice taken over by a Brooklyn-based legal services provider on Tuesday, around three weeks after its former executive director was arrested on federal fraud charges.
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