The Legal Aid Society has honored Selendy & Gay with its 2021 Pro Bono Publico award in recognition of a team that is fighting to defend the rights of hundreds of thousands of New York City tenants.
In March and September of this year, Selendy & Gay, along with the Legal Aid Society and Legal Services New York, successfully obtained the dismissal of three lawsuits filed by several New York landlords and landlord associations that attack the constitutionality of New York’s rent stabilization regime. These regulations provide tenants with a number of essential protections, including limits on landlords’ ability to impose oppressive rent increases and evict tenants with short notice.
Selendy & Gay and its co-counsel intervened in these lawsuits on behalf of N.Y. Tenants & Neighbors (T&N), Community Voices Heard (CVH) and Coalition for the Homeless (CH), non-profit tenant-advocacy organizations that serve those who are unable to afford legal protection and would be severely impacted were the landlords to succeed.
The cases are currently on appeal to the Second Circuit, where the firm, together with the Legal Aid Society and Legal Services New York, will continue to represent T&N, CVH, and CH on behalf of rent-stabilized tenants in New York.
The Pro Bono Publico accolade comes on the heels of Law360 naming Selendy & Gay the top firm in pro bono hours per attorney, outranking nearly 100 of the nation’s top firms.
These awards reflect the firm’s deep commitment to bringing its attorneys’ skills and resources to bear on a range of important social issues, while simultaneously serving commercial clients on complex, innovative matters.
The Selendy & Gay Team
The Selendy & Gay pro bono team includes Caitlin Halligan, Sean Baldwin, Michael Duke, Babak Ghafarzade, Sophie Lipman, Sam Breidbart and Katya Stynes.
