Homeowners
The City took their homes for unpaid charges, and kept the equity too
Dorce v. City of New York · S.D.N.Y. No. 19-cv-2216 · 2 F.4th 82 (2d Cir. 2021)
Under New York City’s Third Party Transfer program, the City took title to homes and small buildings over unpaid municipal charges and handed them to third parties. The owners lost all of their equity, not just the amount they owed. In 2018 Yolande I. Nicholson brought the pattern to me, and in March 2019 we filed a class action arguing that keeping that equity is a taking. In 2021 the Second Circuit reinstated the takings, due process and equal protection claims after a dismissal. In 2023 the Supreme Court held unanimously in Tyler v. Hennepin County that a government that keeps the surplus after a tax sale has taken property, the theory our complaint had pleaded in 2019. In September 2026 the City agreed to a proposed $60 million settlement for the owners of the 64 properties in the program’s tenth round, which awaits court approval. Claims for more than 500 other properties are still being litigated, with co-counsel Ropes & Gray and White & Case.
Outcome Proposed $60 million settlement for the Round 10 class, awaiting court approval
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. More about the case
FDNY fire protection inspectors
Fire inspectors paid less than building inspectors for similar work
Chalmers v. City of New York · S.D.N.Y. No. 20-cv-3389 · settlement website
The inspectors who enforce fire-safety rules for the FDNY claimed that the City paid them less than the Department of Buildings pays its construction inspectors for substantially similar work, and that the gap existed because most fire protection inspectors are people of color. The court certified the class in September 2022. After months of mediation, the City agreed to pay $29,907,500 into a settlement fund, with back-pay awards that count toward the inspectors’ City pensions and a new labor-management committee. The City did not admit wrongdoing. The court granted final approval in March 2025. Our firm and Mehri & Skalet were court-appointed class counsel for the inspectors’ damages class.
Outcome $29.9 million class settlement, approved March 2025
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Film and television production assistants
The crews who hold the streets for film shoots, and the overtime they were owed
Parking production assistant cases · S.D.N.Y. · 2015–2017
Before a film or television crew can shoot on a New York street, someone has to hold the parking and secure the location. Parking production assistants do that work for the studios and networks. Beginning in 2015, we brought overtime cases for them under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and the New York Labor Law against major studios and networks. James A. Vagnini originated the cases, and I was the lead attorney prosecuting them. The studios and networks settled: CBS ($9.98 million), Warner Bros. and HBO ($8.0 million), NBCUniversal ($4.27 million), Sony/Columbia (up to $2.4 million), ABC/Marvel ($1.75 million), Paramount ($700,000), Amazon Studios ($517,595), Lions Gate ($349,462) and Netflix ($225,000).
Outcome More than $28 million in documented settlements
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Brooklyn homeowners facing foreclosure
A right to ask for a lawyer that nobody was deciding
Fanfair v. Knipel · App. Div. 2d Dep’t No. 2023-05048 · case page
New York law says that when a homeowner comes to a foreclosure settlement conference without a lawyer, the homeowner is deemed to have asked the court to decide whether to appoint one. In the Kings County foreclosure part, those requests were not being decided, and homeowners went through their conferences alone. In June 2023, two Brooklyn homeowners filed a class petition in the Appellate Division, Second Department, against the court officials responsible. We brought it with Yolande I. Nicholson, the New York Civil Liberties Union and Mehri & Skalet PLLC, as public-interest work. In March 2024 the court system settled. It agreed that Kings County judges will decide each unrepresented homeowner’s request on the record and adjourn the conference if they appoint counsel, the Office of Court Administration agreed to adopt statewide rules or procedures, and the court system reports quarterly, for three years, on how often counsel is appointed.
Outcome Settled March 2024; the court system agreed to decide requests for counsel before conferences go forward
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. More about the case