NSB lawyers awarded highest rates ever in New York for civil rights lawyers

On November 30, in recognition of the NSB’s expertise in wrongful conviction law, Judge Joanna Seybert awarded the firm a total of nearly $5 million in fees and costs for its 8 years of work on civil rights claims made by John Restivo and Dennis Halstead. Mr. Restivo and Mr. Halstead each spent 18 years in prison, after being wrongfully convicted for a 1984 Nassau County rape and murder, before they were exonerated by DNA. In 2014, NSB partners Nick Brustin and Anna Benvenutti Hoffmann won a $36 million verdict for Mr. Restivo and Mr. Halstead, based on a finding that former Nassau County Detective Joseph Volpe had planted hairs and hid evidence suggesting Mr. Restivo’s and Mr. Halstead’s innocence, to secure a conviction.