Richard David Emery

Last updated
Richard Emery
Richard Emery Child Rights.jpg
Emery in 2017
Born (1946-03-05) March 5, 1946 (age 77)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Education Brown University (BA)
Columbia Law School (JD)
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1980;div. 1996)​
Melania Levitsky
​
​
(m. 2002)​
Children1
Family Richard Courant (grandfather)
Jürgen Moser (stepfather)

Richard David Emery (born March 5, 1946) is an American lawyer. He is a founding partner of Emery, Celli, Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP. [1] He was the Chair of the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board from 2014 to 2016.

Contents

Emery was part of New York Governor Mario Cuomo's State Commission on Government Integrity in the late 1980s. He was also part of the part of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's Transition Committee for Government Reform Issues. He was a member of the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct for 13 years until March 2017.

Early life and education

Emery was born in Boston, Massachusetts on March 5, 1946. [2] He received a B.A. from Brown University in 1967 and received a J.D., cum laude, in 1970 from Columbia University Law School, where he was named a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. Following law school, he became a law clerk for Gus J. Solomon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. [3]

Career

After graduating from law school, Emery moved to Washington and founded the Institutional Legal Services Project, a state-financed public-interest firm that represented people who were incarcerated in prisons, mental institutions and juvenile facilities. After directing the project for six years, he moved back to New York in 1977 and joined the New York Civil Liberties Union as a staff attorney and worked there for a decade. [4]

In 1987, Emery was offered a seat on Governor Mario Cuomo's State Commission on Government Integrity. He accepted the offer and resigned from New York Civil Liberties Union. The same year he became of counsel to Lankenau, Kovner & Bickford, and, thereafter, a partner, focusing on civil and civil rights cases at the firm. There, he represented Robert McLaughlin, who had been wrongfully convicted. Emery obtained McLaughlin's release and one of the first large awards of compensation for wrongful conviction.

One of Emery's most notable cases at the firm was a lawsuit charging that the New York City Board of Estimate violated the principle of "one person, one vote" by granting the Staten Island Borough President, who represented fewer than 400,000 people, the same power as the Brooklyn Borough President, who represented more than two million. In 1989, Emery won the case, arguing in the U.S. Supreme Court and achieving the invalidation of the Board on one person-one vote constitutional grounds. [2] [5]

In 1996, Emery represented Laurance Rockefeller, Jr. and presidential candidate Steve Forbes in their bids to gain ballot access. [6] Emery left Lankenau, Kovner & Bickford and founded Emery, Celli, Brinckerhoff & Abady in 1997.

In 2000, he represented John McCain in his bid to gain access to the 2000 New York Republican presidential primary ballot [7] and in 2001, Emery represented over 60,000 misdemeanor detainees in a case against New York City's strip search policy. Emery won the case and New York City agreed to pay $50 million to 50,000 people who had been illegally strip-searched. [8] Emery also represented the three Jackson brothers starved by foster parents in New Jersey in K.J. et al. v. Division of Youth and Family Services et al. [9]

In March 2004, Emery was appointed to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, by New York State Senate Minority Leader John L. Sampson, and served until March 2016. [10] In November 2006, newly elected Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer appointed Emery to his Transition Committee for Government Reform Issues. After Spitzer resigned in March 2008, Governor David Paterson appointed Emery to the New York State Commission on Public Integrity. [11]

In 2010, Emery won a civil rights lawsuit over strip searches performed on non-violent, low-level offenders at the Rikers Island jail facility. As a result of the lawsuit, the city agreed to pay $33 million on behalf of more than 100,000 plaintiffs. Emery represented Roger Clemens' trainer in a defamation lawsuit about steroid use and Duke lacrosse player Reade Seligmann in a civil suit for wrongful prosecution. Emery also represented Cooper Union in a suit to restore tuition-free education. [12]

In 2014, Emery was appointed as the Chair of the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) by the Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio. [13] As the chairman of the CCRB, Emery had aggressive investigations conducted into police misconduct including the use of chokeholds, [14] false statements made by police, [15] and unlawful searches. [16] Emery resigned from the Board on April 13, 2016. [17]

Emery is a member of the City Club, an organization that works on preservation issues in New York City and represented the Club in its environmental suit to block a park Barry Diller planned to build in the Hudson River. [3] He is also the founder and president of the West End Preservation Society. [18] Emery has taught as an adjunct professor at the New York University and University of Washington schools of law as well as currently at Fordham University Law School and Cardozo Law School. Emery is a columnist for the New York Law Journal, writing on judicial conduct. [3]

Personal life

He married actress Lori Singer in 1980. The couple had a son, Jacques Singer-Emery in 1991, before divorcing in 1996. [19] Emery married Melania Levitsky in 2002 and had a daughter, Nikita Lev Emery in 2004, later divorcing in 2020. He is the grandson of mathematician Richard Courant and the stepson of the mathematician Jürgen Moser. [2]

Awards and honors

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Civil Liberties Union</span> Legal advocacy organization in the United States

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit human rights organization founded in 1920. The organization strives "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". The ACLU works through litigation and lobbying and has over 1,800,000 members as of July 2018, with an annual budget of over $300 million. Affiliates of the ACLU are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The ACLU provides legal assistance in cases where it considers civil liberties at risk. Legal support from the ACLU can take the form of direct legal representation or preparation of amicus curiae briefs expressing legal arguments when another law firm is already providing representation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Rifle Association</span> American nonprofit organization

The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent gun rights lobbying organization while continuing to teach firearm safety and competency. The organization also publishes several magazines and sponsors competitive marksmanship events. According to the NRA, it had nearly 5 million members as of December 2018, though that figure has not been independently confirmed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Moscone</span> American lawyer and politician (1929–1978)

George Richard Moscone was an attorney and Democratic politician who was the 37th mayor of San Francisco, California from January 1976 until his assassination in November 1978. He was known as "The People's Mayor", who opened up City Hall and its commissions to reflect the diversity of San Francisco, appointing African Americans, Asian Americans, and gay people. Moscone served in the California State Senate from 1967 until becoming Mayor. In the Senate, he served as Majority Leader. Moscone is remembered for being an advocate of civil progressivism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York City Housing Authority</span> Public development corporation responsible for New York Citys public and leased housing

The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is a public development corporation which provides public housing in New York City, and is the largest public housing authority in North America. Created in 1934 as the first agency of its kind in the United States, it aims to provide decent, affordable housing for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers throughout the five boroughs of New York City. NYCHA also administers a citywide Section 8 Leased Housing Program in rental apartments. NYCHA developments include single and double family houses, apartment units, singular floors, and shared small building units, and commonly have large income disparities with their respective surrounding neighborhood or community. These developments, particularly those including large-scale apartment buildings, are often referred to in popular culture as "projects."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas More Law Center</span> Christian conservative law firm in Michigan, US

The Thomas More Law Center is a Christian, conservative, nonprofit, public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and active throughout the United States. According to the Thomas More Law Center website, its goals are to "preserve America's Judeo-Christian heritage, defend the religious freedom of Christians, restore time-honored moral and family values, protect the sanctity of human life, and promote a strong national defense and a free and sovereign United States of America."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Neufeld</span> American attorney

Peter J. Neufeld is an American attorney, co-founder, with Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project, and a founding partner in the civil rights law firm Neufeld Scheck & Brustin. Starting from his earliest years as an attorney representing clients at New York's Legal Aid Society, and teaching trial advocacy at Fordham School of Law from 1988 to 1991, he has focused on civil rights and the intersection of science and criminal justice.

David Surmier Cunningham III is a California attorney. He serves as Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge in multiple assignments in family law, probate and in complex civil assignments presiding over products liability cases, labor related class actions and mass torts. He was appointed to the court by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on January 22, 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WSP USA</span> Engineering and design firm founded 1885

WSP USA, formerly Parsons Brinckerhoff, is an American multinational engineering and design firm. The firm operates in the fields of strategic consulting, planning, engineering, construction management, energy, infrastructure and community planning. It is a subsidiary of WSP Global.

The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, or simply the Lawyers' Committee, is an American civil rights organization founded in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Perez</span> American politician and attorney (born 1961)

Thomas Edward Perez is an American politician and attorney currently serving as senior advisor to the president of the United States and director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, holding both positions since June 2023. Perez previously served as the United States secretary of labor (2013–2017), the chair of the Democratic National Committee (2017–2021), and United States assistant attorney general for civil rights (2009–2013).

John Leonard Burris is an American civil rights attorney, based in Oakland, California, known for his work in police brutality cases representing plaintiffs. The John Burris law firm practices employment, criminal defense, DUI, personal injury, and landlord tenant law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York City Police Department corruption and misconduct</span> Overview of misconduct and corruption in the NYPD

Throughout the history of the New York City Police Department, numerous instances of corruption, misconduct, and other allegations of such, have occurred. Over 12,000 cases have resulted in lawsuit settlements totaling over $400 million during a five-year period ending in 2014. In 2019, taxpayers funded $68,688,423 as the cost of misconduct lawsuits, a 76 percent increase over the previous year, including about $10 million paid out to two exonerated individuals who had been falsely convicted and imprisoned.

Cesar Augusto Perales is an American attorney, civil servant and was the previous Secretary of State of New York in the Cabinet of Governor Andrew Cuomo. Perales was appointed by Cuomo on March 31, 2011, and unanimously confirmed by the New York State Senate on June 7.

The Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship is a full-tuition public service scholarship for students at New York University School of Law. It is widely considered to be the most prestigious public interest scholarship for law students in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cooper Union financial crisis and tuition protests</span>

The Cooper Union financial crisis and tuition protests constitute the events surrounding Cooper Union's announcement that they would begin charging tuition after being a tuition-free school for most of its history. The possible mismanagement of the school's finances and the subsequent reactions of students, faculty, alumni and organized protest groups attracted widespread media attention. Activist groups staged a series of occupations and protests demanding the resignation of the school president, Jamshed Bharucha, promoting a vote of no confidence in Bharucha and the school's Board Chair, Mark Epstein, both of whom resigned in 2015, and insisting that the administration address the concerns of students, faculty, alumni, and the public, and alternate plans to avoid having the school charging tuition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Giuffra</span> American attorney

Robert "Bob" J. Giuffra Jr. is an American attorney. He is Co-Chair and a partner of Sullivan & Cromwell in New York, and is a member of their Management Committee.

James B. Chanin is an American civil rights attorney, based in Oakland, California. Chanin has been an attorney since 1978, and is best known for his representation of victims in the “Oakland Riders” case, and as one of the two plaintiffs’ attorneys in the Riders Negotiated Settlement Agreement (NSA). Although best known for his cases involving police misconduct, Chanin has also represented police officers and other police department employees.

Glenn Duque Magpantay is the former executive director of the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance, an instructor at Brooklyn Law School and Hunter College/CUNY, and a former civil rights attorney in the role of Democracy Program director for the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. In 2023, Glenn D Magpantay was appointed as a Commissioner to the United States Commission on Civil Rights by Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer. He is chair of the LGBT Committee of the Asian American Bar Association of New York, former co-chair of the Gay Asian & Pacific Islander Men of New York, and recognized as an "authority on the federal Voting Rights Act and expert on Asian American political participation, including bilingual ballots, election reform, minority voter discrimination, multilingual exit polling, and census." He has served as a commissioner on the New York City Voter Assistance Commission. He is also a contributing writer for the Huffington Post. The Glenn Magpantay Leadership Award at his undergraduate alma mater, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is named after him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessica G. L. Clarke</span> American judge (born 1983)

Jessica Gloria Lynn Clarke is an American lawyer from New York who serves as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nina Morrison (judge)</span> American judge (born 1970)

Nina Rauh Morrison is an American lawyer who serves as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. As part of her work for the Innocence Project, she had been lead or co-counsel in cases that have freed more than 30 wrongly convicted people from prison and death row.

References

  1. ↑ "Our People". Emery, Celli, Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  2. 1 2 3 Daley, Suzanne (1989-03-23). "Estimate Board Upset By an Underdog Battler" . The New York Times . Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  3. 1 2 3 "Richard D. Emery, Esq., Chair". NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board . Government of New York City. 2014-07-17. Archived from the original on 2014-10-14. Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  4. ↑ Chayes, Matthew (2014-07-17). "Richard Emery, civil liberties lawyer, named to NYC police review board". Newsday . Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  5. ↑ Marton, Janos (2015-03-22). "26 Years Since the Board of Estimate's Demise". Gotham Gazette . Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  6. ↑ Hicks, Jonathan P. (1995-11-03). "Rockefeller Sues for More Access to Primaries" . The New York Times . Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  7. ↑ Peterson, Helen; Mahoney, Joe (2000-02-05). "Primary Ordered Open U.S. Judges Tosses 2 GOP Ballot Rule". The Daily News . Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  8. ↑ Weiser, Benjamin (2001-01-10). "New York Will Pay $50 Million In 50,000 Illegal Strip-Searches" . The New York Times . Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  9. ↑ "Human cost of starvation settlement" . The Philadelphia Inquirer . 2005-11-17. Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  10. ↑ "Appendix A: Biographies of Commission Members". 2015 Annual Report (PDF) (Report). New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct. 2015-03-01. p. 25. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  11. 1 2 "Commission Members". 2008 Annual Report (Report). New York State Commission on Public Integrity. 2008. Archived from the original on 2015-01-16. Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  12. ↑ Campbell, Jon (2014-07-17). "De Blasio Appoints Richard Emery to Chair Police Oversight Board". The Village Voice . Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  13. ↑ Sledge, Matt (2014-07-17). "Civil Rights Lawyer Appointed To Reform Police Oversight Board". HuffPost . Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  14. ↑ Shallwani, Pervaiz; Janos, Adam (2014-09-11). "Chokehold Complaints Have Been Undercounted". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  15. ↑ Goodman, J. David (2015-05-15). "Review Board Notes Rise in New York Police Officers' False Statements" . The New York Times . Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  16. ↑ Baker, Al (2016-03-01). "Review Agency Faults New York Police Department on Unlawful Searches" . The New York Times . Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  17. ↑ Shallwani, Pervaiz (2016-04-13). "Head of NYPD Watchdog Resigns". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  18. ↑ Kamping-Carder, Leigh (November 2012). "NYC's NIMBY posse". The Real Deal . New York City: Korangy Publishing. Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  19. ↑ Buchanan, Jason (2007). "Lori Singer Biography". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . Baseline & All Movie Guide. Archived from the original on 2007-11-09. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  20. ↑ Durkin, Erin; Beekman, Daniel (2014-03-12). "Sore Liu-ser suing election finance board". The Daily News . Retrieved 2017-03-17.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.