PERSON: Jonathan Abady

Emery Celli Brinckerhoff and Abady LLP

Attorney

Jonathan S. Abady, a partner in the firm, has a diverse trial and litigation practice, with extensive experience in both the state and federal courts. Jonathan successfully litigated and argued Gasperini v. The Center for Humanities, 518 U.S. 415 (1996) in the United States Supreme Court, a seminal case in Seventh Amendment jurisprudence now featured in law school case books and taught throughout the country. Since 2008, Jonathan has been named as a Super Lawyer and in The Best Lawyers in America as one of New York’s top attorneys in the area of civil rights law.

Some of the individuals and clients Jonathan has represented over the years include Harry Belafonte, Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein, internationally acclaimed artist Donald Sultan, former world heavyweight boxing champion Tim Witherspoon, Pulitzer Prize nominated photojournalist Arthur Grace, author and activist Philip Agee, recording star Ronnie Spector, former Chief Investment Officer at Citigroup Marc P. Weill, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Penguin Putnam, Urban Box Office Network, and numerous high-level executives in contract negotiations and employment disputes.

Jonathan also has substantial experience in class action and multi-party litigation. Along with other members of the firm, he represented family members of victims who died in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in a historic lawsuit that resulted in a $2.7 billion settlement with the government of Libya. Jonathan was one of the lead lawyers in Ingles v. Toro, a large class action lawsuit, which established major reform in the jail system at Rikers Island in New York City.

In the area of civil rights, Jonathan has represented numerous plaintiffs in wrongful death actions, police misconduct cases, First Amendment litigation, and voting rights cases. In 2000, Jonathan was a member of the team of lawyers who litigated voting irregularities in Florida in the Bush-Gore Presidential election. In 2008, Jonathan was one of the lead lawyers in successful federal litigation connected to the Obama-McCain Presidential election.

Jonathan began his legal career as a trial lawyer, and was then a supervising attorney with the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, a national demonstration project in New York City that provides criminal defense services to indigent residents of the Harlem community. Prior to entering law school, Jonathan lived in Latin America and worked in international human rights. In 1987, he presented testimony to the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland concerning the war in Nicaragua.