Law.com Litigation Daily: Litigator of the Week Runners Up and Shout Outs

Law.com Litigation Daily: Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout-Outs

• April 25, 2025
• 5:12 pm

Law.com's Litigation Daily newsletter recognized attorneys from NYLAG's Special Litigation and Special Education units in its "Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout-Outs" for two consecutive weeks for their efforts - in two separate lawsuits - to ensure continuous home care access for older New Yorkers and those with disabilities and mandate timely accommodation hearings for students in need of critical special education supports.

Elizabeth Jois and Julia Russell, Supervising Attorney and Coordinating Senior Attorney in NYLAG's Special Litigation Unit, respectively, were recognized on April 18 for their efforts to ensure continued home care access for older adults and those with disabilities who rely on the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) to receive in-home care and services. Jois and Russell, along with Rebecca Wallach, Director of NYLAG's Evelyn Frank Legal Resources Program (EFLRP), secured an extension that gives CDPAP participants and personal assistants more time to transition to a fiscal intermediary chosen by the state. See Engesser et al v. McDonald for more information on this ongoing lawsuit.

A team led by Elizabeth Jois of the New York Legal Assistance Group and Lisa Cleary of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler secured a preliminary injunction last week giving home health care recipients in New York and their providers more time to transition to the state's preferred fiscal intermediary as part of its Consumer-Directed Personal Assistance Program. The team previously won a temporary restraining order from U.S. District Senior Judge Frederic Block in Brooklyn blocking the state's proposed April 1 deadline for the transition from 600 fiscal intermediaries who facilitate payments to care providers to the one chosen by the state, Public Partnerships LLC, or PPL. As part of the injunction negotiated with the New York State Department of Health, CDPAP consumers have until May 15 to enroll with PPL, and personal assistants until June 6. The legal team included Julia Russell of NYLAG and associates Kate Ross and Emma Brill of Patterson Belknap.

On April 25, Danielle Tarantolo, Director of NYLAG's Special Litigation Unit, was recognized for her work to secure timely accommodation hearings for students in need of critical special education supports. Tarantolo worked alongside Jessica Selecky, Director of NYLAG's Special Education Unit, Elizabeth Curran, Supervising Attorney in NYLAG's Special Education Unit, and Kate Fetrow, Coordinating Attorney in NYLAG's Special Litigation Unit. Read NYLAG and co-counsel Sullivan & Cromwell's full statement on the historic settlement here and visit JSM v. New York City Department of Education​ for more information on the case.

A pro bono team at Sullivan & Cromwell joined with the New York Legal Assistance Group to get sign-off on a settlement in a long-running case aimed at addressing delays in the hearing system for special education services in New York City Public Schools. In an order this week approving the class action settlement, U.S. District Judge Eric Komitee noted that certain provisions, including promises of certain technological upgrades and best-practice improvements by the state and city education departments, likely would have been beyond the scope of any relief the plaintiffs could have received had they prevailed on liability at trial. "Thus, the settlement does not just minimize the risks of proving the plaintiffs' entitlement to relief: it provides relief arguably superior to that which the plaintiffs could have obtained at trial," the judge wrote. The team was led by Sullivan & Cromwell partner Bill Monahan and special counsel Jessica Klein, the head of the firm's pro bono practice, as well as Danielle Tarantolo, director of the special litigation unit of the New York Legal Assistance Group.

Read the full newsletters published in Law.com's Litigation Daily on April 18 and April 25, 2025.

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