Strategic Litigation
In partnership with law firms and organizations, we pursue individual and class action lawsuits against employers who illegally discriminate against applicants with criminal histories. These lawsuits aim to procure financial settlements and systemic change in hiring practices, among other forms of relief, for system-affected clients. Additionally, our Strategic Litigation practice uses laws that our Policy Team has championed as a mechanism for social change—laws that aim to counter discriminatory practices that have historically oppressed under-resourced communities of color.
A key example of our model is the passage of the NY Fair Chance Act. After learning from clients that the existing anti-discriminatory law in New York (N.Y. Corrections Law Article 23-A) was failing to actually secure employment for our clients, Youth Represent’s Policy Team helped secure passage of the most progressive “Ban the Box'' protection in the country–The Fair Chance Act (N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 8-107, “FCA”). The law was powerful in words, but without strong litigation to hold corporations accountable to the law itself, it was largely ignored by employers. Seeing this, Youth Represent built out our strategic litigation practice, and filed the first two FCA matters in New York (Millien, et al. v. The Madison Square Garden Co., et al., No. 1:17-cv-04000, (S.D.N.Y., Jul. 14, 2017); Kelly v. Brooklyn Events Ctr., LLC, et al., No. 1:17-cv-04600, (E.D.N.Y., Aug. 4, 2017)). Through the litigation on these cases, we not only secured millions of dollars in settlement funds for the community and changed the organizations hiring practices, but learned where corporations were trying to secure loopholes in the law’s designed protections. Armed with that knowledge, Youth Represent helped draft, review, and ultimately secure an update to the FCA that closed these loopholes in 2021.
To date, Youth Represent’s strategic litigation has secured over $8 million in settlement funds, providing support for over 24,000 individuals wrongly discriminated against for having system involvement and giving many the opportunity for employment. This money is critical to help make our clients whole and support their lost income; but we are deeply proud that every case also secures corporate practice change to halt their discriminatory practices for everyone who applies for future employment.