• Filed under , Civil Rights , Prosecutorial Misconduct , Wrongful Conviction

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The American Lawyer magazine today announced our law firm’s nomination, together with the international law firm WilmerHale and Buffalo’s Hoover & Durland, for its annual “Best Provider Collaboration” award for our work together earlier this year in achieving a $28 million verdict for our client John Walker. The record-setting verdict was handed down by a federal jury in Rochester, NY, to compensate Mr. Walker for his 21 years in prison on a wrongful 1977 conviction in Buffalo for a murder he did not commit. To obtain this verdict, our team had to uncover and present evidence that misconduct by Erie County prosecutors had resulted from unlawful policies and practices of the Erie County District Attorney. We could not recover from the prosecutors themselves because all prosecutors are protected from civil liability by the doctrine of absolute immunity. This is believed to be the largest jury award ever against a municipality based upon misconduct by a prosecutor.