Our civil rights and criminal defense practice is known for significant constitutional cases involving police misconduct, the First Amendment, and employment discrimination.

Recently, the firm was responsible for the ground-breaking class action, Floyd v. City of New York, which successfully overturned the NYPD's decade-long unconstitutional stop-and-frisk policy. After a two-month trial, BLH attorneys, led by partner Jonathan Moore, working with the Center for Constitutional Rights and Covington and Burling, won an unprecedented judgment in the district court, which found the NYPD's practice of discriminatory stops and frisks unconstitu-tional. BLH lawyers continue to work on the remedial phase of the case, pushing for improved stop-and-frisk policies, training, and supervision.

BLH lawyers, led by partners Myron Beldock, Karen Dippold, and Jonathan Moore, represented four of the five Plaintiffs in the Central Park Five case. The case stemmed from the wrongful conviction of Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Antron McCray, and Korey Wise for the rape of a female jogger in Central Park in 1989. The convictions were set aside and the five were exonerated in 2006. In 2008, BLH and Jonathan Moore, who was then a partner at Goodman and Moore, sued the detectives and prosecutors who were responsible for the wrongful convictions. In 2014, the City of New York agreed to pay a $40 million settlement.

The firm has historically fought for the rights of those subjected to discrimination or other wrongful or arbitrary conduct, including a successful race discrimination class action against the New York City Parks Department which led to a $21 million settlement.

BLH lawyers also represented over 1,800 individuals who were falsely arrested during the Republican National Convention held in New York City in 2004. Many of these individuals were held in inhumane conditions at the infamous Pier 57 holding center.
BLH filed a federal class action lawsuit and in 2014 negotiated a $6.6 million settlement with the City.

BLH continues to represent many individual clients in vindicating their rights. Myron Beldock has successfully litigated many well-known civil rights cases, including the cases of George Whitmore, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, Darryl King, Albert Victory, Everton Wagstaffe, and Yusef Salaam. Jonathan Moore is representing the Estate of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man who was killed by NYPD officers in July 2014 after being put in a chokehold.