Paul, Weiss Secures Significant Attorneys’ Fees Award For Pro Bono Client

In a win for Paul, Weiss and our pro bono client in a New York State anti-SLAPP case, a New York Supreme Court-appointed Special Referee recommended an approximately $170,000 award of attorneys’ fees and costs to Make the Road New York—the state’s largest community-based membership organization representing immigrants and working-class people of color—and two former Make the Road organizers.

The referee’s report and recommendation follows the court’s grant of summary judgment in our clients’ favor in July 2020 on their counterclaim brought under the New York State Civil Rights Law Section 70-a (the anti-SLAPP statute).

The anti-SLAPP case is rooted in Make the Road New York’s organizing effort on behalf of tenants of a Staten Island housing project, Park Hill, demanding that management remedy abysmal conditions in Park Hill’s federally subsidized apartment buildings. When management failed to address tenants’ grievances and instead attempted to retaliate against the tenant organizers and to suppress their organizational efforts, Make the Road New York alerted the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Park Hill then filed a lawsuit alleging that our clients had committed various intentional torts ranging from defamation to tortious interference with Park Hill’s business relations with HUD, for which Park Hill sought a minimum of $25 million in damages. Make the Road New York subsequently filed the anti-SLAPP counterclaims.

In its ruling on our clients’ counterclaim in July 2020, the court held that our clients had shown that Park Hill’s owners had filed an unlawful strategic lawsuit against public participation, or a “SLAPP” suit, violating our clients’ First Amendment rights, and subsequently appointed a special referee to determine attorneys’ fees and costs owed to our clients.

In November 2020, the referee convened a two-day trial during which Paul, Weiss attorneys presented documentary evidence supporting their clients’ claimed fees and costs, and testified on direct and cross-examination.

The referee’s recommended award is pending court approval; Paul, Weiss will donate any fees it receives to Make the Road New York.

The Paul, Weiss team included litigation partner Greg Laufer and associates Jeremy Benjamin and Ben Bergmann, all of whom testified at the damages hearing, as well as associate Makiko Hiromi, who conducted direct examinations of the witnesses.