Cooley, Boies Schiller, Kaplan Sue White Supremacists Over Charlottesville
Lawyers including Roberta Kaplan and Karen Dunn sued white supremacy groups for conspiracy in connection with the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 11 and 12.
October 12, 2017 at 01:11 PM
3 minute read
Demonstrators in Philadelphia participate in a rally against white nationalism and other forms of racism and hate organized by the interfaith advocacy organization POWER, Aug. 16, 2017. (Michael Candelori/Shutterstock.com)
A prominent group of lawyers from firms including Cooley and Boies Schiller Flexner filed a lawsuit in federal court Thursday on behalf of individuals injured in the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, this past summer.
The team of lawyers includes renowned litigators Roberta Kaplan, of the months-old Kaplan and Co., and Karen Dunn, a former associate counsel to President Barack Obama once-rumored to be Hillary Clinton's top choice for general counsel. Also on the case are Cooley partners Alan Levine, David Mills and Robert Cahill. The lawsuit alleges various state and federal offenses by white supremacy groups and individuals during a march and rally Aug.11-12 in Charlottesville that turned violent, killing one person and injuring dozens others.
“The violence, suffering, and emotional distress that occurred in Charlottesville was a direct, intended, and foreseeable result of Defendants' unlawful conspiracy,” the lawsuit said. “It was all according to plan—a plan they spent months working out and whose implementation they actively oversaw as events unfolded on the ground.”
The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia. The plaintiffs include Marissa Blair, a co-worker and friend of Heather Heyer, a paralegal who was killed when a man hit her with his car while she engaged in counter-protest against white supremacist groups. Other plaintiffs include undergraduate students, law students and staff at the University of Virginia and other residents of Charlottesville.
The defendants are more than two-dozen white supremacy and neo-Nazi groups, including Jason Kessler, the organizer of the event known as the Unite the Right rally, white supremacist Richard Spencer and Alex Fields Jr., the man accused of killing Heyer with his vehicle. Other organizational plaintiffs include the Vanguard America, the National Socialists Movement and the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
In an email, Mike Peinovich, one of the defendants, said “As far as I know these 'lawsuits' are hoaxes.”
The other defendants could not be reached for comment.
The lawsuit asks for compensatory, statutory and punitive damages to be determined at trial, as well as whatever relief the court may deem necessary. Among the various claims, the complaint alleges the defendants engaged in a conspiracy to interfere with civil rights, in violation of federal law, as well as civil conspiracy to commit violence against others and intimidate or harass others because of their race, religion or ethnicity, in violation of Virginia state law.
“There is one thing about this case that should be made crystal-clear at the outset— the violence in Charlottesville was no accident,” the lawsuit said. “Under the pretext of a 'rally,' which they termed 'Unite the Right,' Defendants spent months carefully coordinating their efforts, on the internet and in person.
The FBI and Justice Department's Civil Rights Division are also actively investigating the events in Charlottesville, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in August.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllWhy ACLU's New Legal Director Says It's a 'Good Time to Take the Reins'
8th Circuit Appeal Could Weaken Key Defense in Disability Bias Cases, Employment Lawyers Say
Michael Cohen Loses Bid for Supreme Court Review of Civil Rights Lawsuit
ACLU's Strangio Will Become First Openly Trans Attorney to Argue at Supreme Court
Trending Stories
- 1Bolstering Southern California Presence, Sidley Austin Settles Into Revitalized Downtown LA Office
- 2Judge Orders Prosecution to Destroy Copies of Notes Found in Sean Combs' Prison Cell
- 3BIT Mining Bribery Scandal Highlights Trump-Biden Enforcement Gap
- 4AI Startup Founder Defrauded Investors of Millions, US Prosecutors Say
- 5Cyberattacks Slowing Down M&A Deals, Firm Report Finds
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250