Lumer Law Group

11/03/2025

The great Bryan Stevenson describing the casual racism that still permeates our social and political institutions.

08/04/2023

Happy to announce that we took a million-dollar verdict yesterday in federal court in Brooklyn for MH, a man who was wrongly prosecuted for a robbery he did not commit and who was jailed for 11 months as a result. Justice was a long time coming for MH but we are glad we could help deliver his vindication, along with our co-counsel, Lauriano and Christine Guzman, who fought to get this case to trial.

08/01/2023

Terrific lawyering! A shame it was necessary.

NLG members affiliated with NLG-NYC secured a historic settlement for protesters brutalized by NYPD in 2020. The $13 million settlement is the largest amount paid to protesters in a class action in U.S. history.

https://www.blhny.com/single-post/protesters-win-record-13-million-plus-settlement-over-nypd-misconduct-during-blm-2020-protests

02/03/2023

To be clear, $121m is a lot of money for a lot of misconduct. On a related note, Michael Lumer is interviewed in the accompanying video.

NEW YORK (PIX11) — New York City shelled out more than $121 million to settle NYPD misconduct cases last year, including $12 million for a man who spent more than two decades in prison for a …

01/16/2023

Lawyers are often (correctly) portrayed as uninterested in the greater good. But the law can be a powerful tool for justice. As MLK said in a speech before the NYC Bar Association in 1965, "As we have fought and demanded our just rights, as we have given witness with our bodies to the existence of evil, lawyers have steadfastly used their professional talents, knowledge and abilities to aid us, to make our plea for dignity heard in the courts of our land." It is true that, "justice at times proceeds with a halting gait, that at times the law has been slow to speak for the poor, the oppressed, the unpopular, the disfranchised," but as lawyers, we have the ability to work, however incrementally, towards a more just society. It is on days like today that I am reminded of my larger obligations. We often fall short, but it is essential that we continue to strive to do what we know is right.

01/04/2023

We are happy that our client, JT, was able to reach a prompt and fair resolution. But the fact that the City of New York is paying the entire settlement (even though one offending officer is being charged departmentally with using excessive force, including a chokehold, and for making a false statement), confirms that the NYPD is just fine with this sort of conduct.

Police claimed that Joseph T. assaulted them in the May 2020 incident, but body camera footage published by THE CITY showed otherwise.

08/26/2022

We are happy to announce that a jury has found defendants Undercover Officer 217, Ylka Morales, and Hugo Ortega violated our client's rights and caused him significant injuries. The story doesn't fully capture how venal the UC officer's conduct was. He repeatedly swore under oath that he saw our client in a drug transaction when he knew he never saw any such thing, and he completely made up a claim that our client and several others tried to rob him at gunpoint. If exculpatory surveillance video hadn't surfaced our client would undoubtedly have been convicted and sentenced to years in prison. Truly shameful conduct.

Former Detective Ylka Morales, detective Hugo Ortega, an unnamed undercover officer, were hit with the tab as part of a Tuesday verdict in favor of William Kleinfeldt, who sued the trio in Brooklyn federal court for excessive force and malicious prosecution.