“It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for all people.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
About NSBHF
Firm History
Since its founding in 2000, NSBHF has been known as a national leader in civil rights litigation. Our development of now widely acknowledged legal theories in countless civil wrongful conviction lawsuits around the country has led to substantial recoveries for the firm’s wrongful conviction clients and others.
By using civil discovery to gain insight into the misconduct behind wrongful convictions, founding partners Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld (together with late partner Johnnie Cochran) were pioneers in this field. Building on this knowledge, partners Nick Brustin, Anna Benvenutti Hoffmann, Emma Freudenberger and Amelia Green lead the nation’s premier civil rights trial practice. NSBHF has brought in record-setting wins across the country, as well as important policy changes as a result of our work.
We are committed to collaborating with our clients and lawyers nationwide to fix systemic problems and reduce the risk of future injustices. We have forced crime labs and police internal affairs units to agree to independent audits, police departments to videotape interrogations, and police recruits to hear from victims of police misconduct in the classroom.
NSBHF focuses on a small number of important cases, staffs each case with a team of talented lawyers, and commits enough resources to win against any defendant, in any case. And we get outstanding results:
- Some of the largest wrongful conviction settlements and verdicts in U.S. history
- Record civil rights verdicts and settlements in states nationwide
- Named civil rights Super Lawyers year after year
- Highest civil rights settlements against NYPD year after year
- Delivered a win at every trial taken to a jury for the last fourteen years
Practice Areas
NSBHF’s core practice area is federal §1983 wrongful conviction litigation and related state claims. The firm also represents clients who have experienced racial discrimination and serious injury, including sexual assault at the hands of police and corrections officers, unlawful shootings, and wrongful deaths in prisons and jails.
The firm has demonstrated success in dealing with every form of police misconduct in wrongful conviction cases and has won more in total awards from settlements and verdicts from the City of New York in wrongful conviction cases than any other law firm.
We are often called upon for trial practice and strategic consultation, such as to revive important civil rights claims or protect large civil rights verdicts on appeal.
