In 2009, Davis Polk filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Legal Aid Society in Hurrell-Harring v. The State of New York, a class action brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of indigent criminal defendants in five counties in New York. In a landmark ruling for the State of New York, the New York Court of Appeals handed down a 4-3 decision in the case on May 6, 2010, reversing the Third Department’s dismissal and reinstating the plaintiffs' complaint against the State. Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman authored the opinion. The decision will likely serve as a model for similar challenges across the country.

The plaintiffs' complaint alleged that the pervasive deficiencies in the indigent criminal defense system had created a severe and unacceptably high risk of systemic violations of indigent defendants’ right to counsel. Legal Aid's amicus brief argued that the right to meaningful and effective assistance of counsel applies throughout the criminal process, and detailed the many stages of a criminal proceeding at which effective assistance is critical. The brief further argued that it is the courts' rightful role to adjudicate cases such as this, which implicate the fundamental fairness of the criminal justice process.

In ruling for the plaintiffs, the Court concluded that the allegations in the complaint stated cognizable Sixth Amendment claims for a basic denial of the right to counsel under the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Gideon v.Wainwright. The Court deemed the claim justiciable because it alleges the denial of a fundamental constitutional right.

The Davis Polk team on the brief included partner Daniel F. Kolb and associates Daniel J. O'Neill, Jennifer Marcovitz, and Lara Samet. The team also received assistance from Andrew E. Krause, Alex A. Crohn, former associate David B. Steinberg and legal assistant Dana Gorodetsky.