Paul, Weiss Secures Settlement Against Patriot Front Members

In a case that is being litigated through the firm’s Center to Combat Hate, Paul, Weiss secured a settlement for two members of the historically Black Battery Park community in Richmond, Virginia, against members of white supremacist group Patriot Front.

In 2021, several Patriot Front members conspired to deface a mural in Battery Park honoring Arthur Ashe, the first Black man to win the U.S. Open, a committed humanitarian and a revered figure in the Battery Park community. Patriot Front’s violent and racist act was part of a months-long campaign of vandalism, property destruction and intimidation to promote the white supremacist group’s extremist credo. In fact, the Patriot Front members who vandalized the mural videotaped themselves doing so and later used the footage as part of a Patriot Front recruiting video.

Paul, Weiss, along with co-counsel the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Hunton Andrews Kurth, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in 2022 on behalf of two anonymous members of the Battery Park community who had experienced emotional distress as a result of the vandalism. The suit asserted claims under 42 U.S.C. Sections 1985 and 1986 and Virginia’s hate crime statute. The suit named as defendants Patriot Front itself, along with eight individual Patriot Front members who were involved in the conspiracy and 19 John Does. Five of the named defendants appeared and moved to dismiss. In March 2024, the district court denied the defendants’ motion in a comprehensive opinion that eviscerated the defendants’ arguments as to why their conduct was not actionable. The defendants then sought leave to file an interlocutory appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which the district court also denied.

Following these decisions, the parties entered into settlement negotiations. The terms of the settlement, which are not public, redress the vandalism and provide security to the plaintiffs and the Battery Park community against further action by the settling defendants.

The remaining named defendants, who did not appear and are not parties to the settlement, are currently in default. Paul, Weiss and co-counsel will continue to represent the plaintiffs in further proceedings against the defaulted defendants.

The Paul, Weiss team is led by litigation partners Daniel Kramer, Gregory Laufer and Joshua Hill, and includes counsel Robert O’Loughlin and associates Arielle McTootle, Agnes Lee and Gayane Matevosyan.