Brooklyn Defenders

Brooklyn Defenders’ Pro Bono unit continues to make significant strides into Summer 2024. This past week, BDS teamed up with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP once more to offer vital SCR support to Family Defense clients impacted by the family regulation system. Simpson Thacher volunteers were briefed on the detrimental effects of system involvement on parents, children, and caregivers, and subsequently trained to provide optimal assistance to our clients in navigating their SCR cases. Thanks to their dedication, seven Family Defense clients were able to move forward in removing their names from the State Central Registrar. We are deeply appreciative of their commitment and hard work. Beyond their contributions to our Family Defense practice, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP remains a strong ally to our New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (“NYIFUP”) and our Immigrant Community Action Project (“ICAP”) Immigration teams. Individuals seeking asylum, withholding of removal, and Convention Against Torture (CAT) protection must demonstrate a credible fear of future persecution if returned to their home country, primarily through “country conditions reports.” These reports are crucial for securing the safety of our immigration clients in the United States. Since the beginning of 2024, volunteers from Simpson Thacher have completed ten country conditions reports, greatly aiding our efforts.

Thank you for celebrating with us at our 2024 Family Defense Benefit! The evening was truly inspiring. Thank you to everyone who joined us to celebrate 17 years of keeping families together. We were thrilled to present Joyce McMillan, Executive Director of JMACforFamilies, with the Trailblazer Award for leading a community of impacted parents and other advocates to challenge and transform the family policing system. We recognized our dedicated pro bono partners Crowell & Moring, Fried Frank, and Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP, who have continued to demonstrate their unwavering commitment to our work and the families we serve. It was also our pleasure to honor our community partner, exalt, for their exceptional work on behalf of New York City’s youth involved in the criminal legal system. Angelica Charles received the Family Champion Award and courageously shared her experience advocating for herself and her family until they were reunited. Our deepest gratitude to all of our sponsors for their continued show of support and to our entire Brooklyn Defenders team who advocate and fight on behalf of the people we serve each day. And a special thank you to our gracious host, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, for their partnership and for making the evening such a great success.

We are thrilled to welcome our new Senior Director of Interdisciplinary Practice, Jenny Kronenfeld. Jenny will manage our social work teams across all practices and will also manage our Client Services Team. Additionally, she will oversee the reopening of our Community Office in East New York, which will enhance our ability to defend and advocate in the communities we serve. Jenny joins Brooklyn Defenders after almost 22 years as the executive director of Esperanza, an alternative to incarceration program for young people with cases in NYC Criminal, Supreme and Family Court. Prior to Esperanza, she was the Deputy Director and one of the founding supervisors at the Bronx Defenders. She got her start as a defense attorney at the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem where she worked for five years. Before entering law school Jenny worked in a variety of roles, including doing intake work at a residential drug treatment center and secretarial work at Prisoners' Legal Services where she made the decision to become a lawyer. She is a graduate of Hunter College and CUNY Law School.

Brooklyn Defenders’ Pro Bono unit has had a successful start to Spring 2024. In March 2024, BDS partnered with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP to provide imperative SCR support to Family Defense clients impacted by the family regulation system. Volunteers from Simpson Thacher were educated on the harmful implications of system involvement for parents, children, and caregivers, and were then trained to best support our clients in navigating their SCR cases. Simpson’s incredible volunteers successfully assisted six Family Defense clients in their effort to remove their names from the State Central Registrar. We could not be more grateful for their dedication and support. In addition to their work with our Family Defense practice, Simpson Thacher & Barlett LLP continues to be a valuable partner to our New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (“NYIFUP”) and our Immigrant Community Action Project (“ICAP”) Immigration teams. People seeking asylum, withholding of removal, and Convention Against Torture (CAT) protection are responsible for demonstrating that they have an objectively reasonable fear of future persecution if returned to their country of origin through a document known as a “country conditions report.” These reports are essential to securing our immigration client’s security in the United States. Volunteers from Simpson Thacher have completed over eight country conditions reports since the start of 2024.

On Thursday May 23rd from 4:00 - 6pm we're hosting the second session of our virtual Small Business Academy with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP & Start Small Think Big. The Zoom event is open to anyone who is interested in opening a small business or for existing small business owners who are seeking helpful information. In this session we'll have an overview of commercial real estate & leasing in NY, followed by a Q&A and individual consultations. All are welcome! You may register for the event here: https://lnkd.in/ehwH_RTf

Proud to be a member of Brooklyn Defenders Leadership Team.

Brooklyn Defenders is pleased to share our 2023 Annual Report which highlights our most recent outcomes and celebrates the people and organizations who continue to support and contribute to our work. We are proud to have represented and provided zealous advocacy to over 23,000 individuals and their families across Brooklyn and New York State last year. Our approach—to defend, advocate, and change—is made possible by our interdisciplinary team of over 500 highly skilled and experienced attorneys, social workers, investigators, paralegals, and administrative staff who work together to ensure the best possible outcomes for the people we serve. You are also a crucial part of the Brooklyn Defenders team. Your support throughout 2023 furthered our work to uphold the rights, freedom, and dignity of people threatened by unjust legal systems. We are grateful for your incredible partnership. As we progress into 2024, we hope to deepen our impact with you in our corner. Take a moment to read about our impact in 2023 here: https://lnkd.in/eRR6vbmQ

For years, NYC’s Department of Correction’s (DOC) phone system has functioned as a mass surveillance project that records every call made in NYC jails and collects huge amounts of personal data from incarcerated New Yorkers and their loved ones. This week, on behalf of incarcerated New Yorkers as well as the community members they speak with on the telephone, we filed a class action lawsuit to seek an end to this unlawful mass surveillance. Filed alongside the The Bronx Defenders, New York County Defender Services, and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, the lawsuit comes after DOC unlawfully recorded thousands of privileged telephone conversations between people in DOC custody and their defense attorneys—and then disseminated those illicit recordings to law enforcement. These privilege violations are just the tip of the iceberg: DOC’s system, operated by notorious contractor Securus Technologies, is akin to a domestic spying program that collects, stores, and shares deeply personal, biometric, and financial information from people, on the sole basis of their being detained pretrial or wanting to speak with a loved one who is in DOC custody. This system violates New Yorkers’ Constitutional rights, federal and state laws, and DOC’s own rules. We’re demanding that DOC end the universal recording of calls in city jails and terminate its contract with Securus. This litigation was made possible by a years-long investigation conducted by Brooklyn Defenders' Science and Surveillance Project. Through multiple FOIL requests, broad document analysis, and many hours of open source investigation, our team uncovered the appalling reach and extent of DOC's spying system. Read more in the New York Daily News cover story: https://lnkd.in/eTnRKDwM Read our press release here: https://lnkd.in/efRPCzSk

On 4/3 our BDS Pro Bono Unit teamed up with Start Small Think Big and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP to host Session One of the Small Business Academy: Intro to Small Business Ownership. The SBA aims to ensure local entrepreneurs and those interested in starting their own small businesses have access to legal information and resources to best support their businesses success. We are so grateful for our partners and we are looking forward to the next session - stay tuned for upcoming details!

We joined 70 legal organizations to urge lawmakers to restore $234m to New York's Indigent Legal Services Fund and appropriate adequate funding for public defense services for people in need of an attorney in criminal and family courts. Read our letter here: https://lnkd.in/eDKX_4Jx