New York City Mayor Eric Adams has enlisted the services of Dechert LLP in an effort to overturn a ban on solitary confinement at Rikers Island, originally proposed by the city council. Dechert, now co-counsel alongside the city’s corporation counsel team, has been formally involved according to a recent court filing in the Southern District of New York. The Dechert team includes notable figures such as partners Andrew Levander, Jeffrey Brown, Steven Engel, and associates Nicholas Gersh and Harnelle St. Cloud.
Mayor Adams is seeking to suspend the implementation of the solitary confinement ban until federal monitors can review the matter, as indicated in a letter addressed to Judge Laura Swain. The legal battle over solitary confinement between Adams and the city council has been ongoing, with the council having voted to ban the practice in December 2023, a decision the mayor subsequently vetoed. However, the council overrode Adams’ veto in January 2024, thereby enacting the ban.
Levander, who has a background as a white-collar litigator and previous experience as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York’s securities fraud unit, joins Brown and Engel. Brown, co-chair of Dechert’s enforcement and investigations group, also has a prosecutorial background at the SDNY, while Engel leads the firm’s appellate and regulatory litigation group.
Dechert, a global law firm with over 950 lawyers, has represented high-profile clients such as Fox News Network, 3M Co., and Johnson & Johnson, further demonstrating the firm’s significant capabilities (source: Bloomberg Law).