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 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 largest and oldest public defender firm in the country is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year.
Read MoreSeveral days after the Queens Defenders’ founder and executive director was forced to go on leave by the organization’s board of directors, the public defense group has a new interim leader.
Read MoreAttorneys working for the Legal Aid Society picketed their employer this week as contract negotiations between their union and the city’s largest public defense firm continue.
Read MoreWith the deadline for the city’s budget fast approaching, over half of the City Council is calling on the mayor to up funding for public defenders who contract with the city and provide free legal services to New Yorkers.
Read MoreThe Adams administration had difficulty answering questions about the city’s struggling Right to Counsel program during a City Council oversight hearing held on Monday.
Read More“It's really disgusting that we're even being put in this situation, to be always trying to survive, scraping by with a law degree and with the amount of experience that we have,” said one Legal Aid Society attorney. Contract negotiations between the attorneys’ union and the Legal Aid Society have been ongoing for seven months.
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