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.