Pro Bono Client Wins Reversal of Order Terminating Her Parental Rights

Paul, Weiss and the NYU Family Defense Clinic secured a victory for a pro bono client when the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department reversed an order of the Kings County Family Court that had terminated her parental rights. The appeals court remanded the case for fact finding.

In the family court proceeding, our client’s legal rights to her 9-year-old daughter had been terminated following fact-finding and dispositional hearings at which she was not represented by counsel. The family court initially found that our client qualified for free counsel and appointed counsel to represent her. Yet, after her assigned counsel asked to be relieved based on “suspicions” that our client had hacked into her email, the court refused to assign new counsel, despite our client’s repeated requests, ruling that our client had forfeited her right to counsel. Our client was thus forced to proceed pro se at the critical fact-finding hearings that would underlie the court’s ultimate disposition on the issue of parental rights.

On appeal, we argued that our client was improperly denied her right to counsel, which, under New York law, is a bedrock right in termination proceedings, and that, as a result, the family court’s disposition had to be reversed. The Second Department agreed, reversing the family court’s dispositional order and remanding the case for further fact finding at which our client will be represented.

The Paul, Weiss team included litigation partner Audra Soloway and pro bono attorney Jeremy Benjamin, as well as law clerk Janet Lee, who had also worked on the matter as a student in the NYU Family Defense Clinic under the supervision of our co-counsel, Professor Christine Gottlieb.