Kramer Levin’s nationally recognized white collar practice has fostered involvement in pro bono work on behalf of indigent criminal defendants. Kramer Levin has helped protect the rights of low-income defendants at the trial, appeal and collateral challenge stages of the criminal process.
Kramer Levin was one of a handful of major firms invited to help New York’s Legal Aid Society launch its first-ever project to involve law firm associates in trial-level criminal defense work. Each fall since 2008, one or two Kramer Levin associates have been assigned to devote 20 to 30 percent of their time to the project over several months — handling their own misdemeanor dockets (from arraignment to trial) as lead counsel and assisting on felony cases.
Kramer Levin has for many years handled state court criminal appeals referred by Legal Aid, winning reversal in several cases. These matters have provided associates with the opportunity to brief and argue an appeal in the Appellate Division and, in at least one case, in the New York Court of Appeals.
Kramer Levin has represented several defendants in collateral challenges to convictions, acting as court-appointed counsel for indigent habeas plaintiffs. In one such case, the firm’s representation resulted in a state court overturning a robbery conviction, for which the client had already served 12 years of a 15-to-life sentence, based on his trial counsel’s constitutionally deficient performance in failing to challenge eyewitness testimony with prior inconsistent statements.