Paul, Weiss Files Class Action Complaint and Proposed Settlement on Behalf of New York City Students With Disabilities

Paul, Weiss and co-counsel at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest filed a class action complaint on behalf of New York City students with disabilities against the city’s Department of Education and its chancellor over the DOE’s systemic failures to investigate students’ allegations of corporal punishment and/or verbal abuse in a specialized school district serving students with disabilities.

Alongside the complaint, brought in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the team filed a stipulation and proposed order of settlement in which the DOE agreed to substantially improve the process of reporting, investigating and responding to allegations of corporal punishment and/or verbal abuse in the district, known as District 75. The team also filed an unopposed motion for preliminary approval of the settlement.

The filing and concurrent proposed settlement follow over eight years of negotiations with the DOE and the New York City Law Department. Paul, Weiss and co-counsel initially intervened in a related case involving student-on-student abuse in 2018 and carved the proposed class out of a settlement.

The Paul, Weiss team included litigation associates Eric Stern, Edward Friedman, Brandon Bishop and Hana Nasser, along with former summer associates Molly Ferazani, Oliver Kneen and Hannah Strauss. Many former associates, paralegals, and administrative and support professionals have also contributed to the matter over the past eight-plus years. Litigation partner Gregory Laufer and counsel Lissette Duran supervised the matter with assistance from pro bono senior counsel Jeremy Benjamin.