David Bradley Shanies is a seasoned trial lawyer with extensive experience handling high-stakes civil rights litigation. He focuses on wrongful convictions, police and prosecutorial misconduct, the rights of the incarcerated, and LGBTQ+ rights.

David’s legal victories include the exonerations of Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam—the two men wrongfully convicted of killing Malcolm X—whom David represented for their exonerations in 2021 (with co-counsel the Innocence Project) and their civil lawsuits in 2022, in which they won $36 million in compensation. David’s groundbreaking work for LGBTQ+ rights includes record-setting wins in the cases of Layleen Polanco (the highest-ever settlement from New York City for a death in city jail) and Jenna Mitchell (the highest-ever settlement from the State of Georgia for a death in state prison), and the nation’s first jury trial victory for a transgender person denied medical treatment in jail.

David has successfully tried cases before federal and state courts, successfully argued appeals before numerous federal courts of appeals and state courts, achieved ground-breaking policy changes and reforms to protect civil rights, and obtained tens of millions of dollars in compensation for his clients.

Before launching the firm, David practiced law as a member of the litigation department of Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP for ten years. From 2007 to 2009, David served as the first judicial law clerk to the Honorable Roslynn R. Mauskopf, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York (Ret.).

David currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Federal Bar Council and as Chair of the Federal Bar Council’s Civil Rights Committee. He previously served on the Board of Directors of the Federal Bar Foundation.

The Federal Bar Council has honored David with the Thurgood Marshall Award for exceptional pro bono service in recognition of his wrongful conviction and LGBTQ+ rights work.

The Legal Aid Society presented David with its Pro Bono Publico Award for his work on wrongful conviction cases in Brooklyn.

Super Lawyers has recognized David as a “Super Lawyer” in Civil Rights Law and Litigation every year since 2019. It previously named David a “Rising Star” each year from 2014 to 2018. Lawdragon recognized David in the “Lawdragon 500 Leading Civil Rights & Plaintiff Employment Lawyers” in 2023.

In 2016, the New York Law Journal named David as a “Rising Star,” an honor given to top lawyers in the profession under the age of 40.

Education

New York University School of Law, JD, 2006

Vassar College, AB, 2001

Professional Activities

Federal Bar Council (Chair, Civil Rights Committee; Treasurer, FBC Inn of Court; Member, Board of Directors; Member, Second Circuit Courts Committee; Membership Committee, Access to Counsel Project Pro Bono Advisory Board)

Federal Bar Foundation (Former Director)

New York City Bar Association (Civil Rights Committee) (Formerly Criminal Law Committee; Subcommittee on Brooklyn Wrongful Conviction Review; Professional and Judicial Ethics Committee)

American Bar Association (Civil Rights and Social Justice Section, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Committee, Criminal Justice Committee)

Law Clerk, The Honorable Roslynn R. Mauskopf, United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, 2007-2009

Recognition

Recipient of the Lucy McGough Juvenile Justice Award in 2023 from the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers for working—alongside the ACLU, Fair Fight Initiative, Loyola Law School, Murell Law, and Southern Poverty Law Center—to stop the State of Louisiana from sending children to Angola State Prison.

Honored by the Federal Bar Council with the Thurgood Marshall Award for exceptional pro bono service in 2017 for his work on wrongful convictions and transgender civil rights cases

Selected by The New York Law Journal as a “Rising Star,” 2016

Selected by Super Lawyers as a “Super Lawyer” in Civil Rights Law and Litigation in 2019 to 2023; “Rising Star” from 2014 to 2018

Selected by Lawdragon for the “Lawdragon 500 Leading Civil Rights & Plaintiff Employment Lawyers” in 2023

Honored by the Legal Aid Society with the Pro Bono Publico Award in 2015 for his work on Brooklyn wrongful conviction cases

Articles Editor, New York University School of Law Journal of International Law and Politics

Selected Speaking Engagements

Guest Lecturer, Cornell Medical School, Health Policy Course, Lecture on Legal Issues Affecting Healthcare for Transgender Patients, April 2024

Panelist, United States Department of Defense, Defense Advisory Committee on Investigations, Prosecution, and Defense of Sexual Assault in the Armed Forces: Conviction Integrity Units and Wrongful Conviction Investigations (Arlington, Virginia) September 2023

Instructor, National Institute for Trial Advocacy: Civil deposition training for pro bono litigators (New York, New York) May 2022

Panelist, Federal Bar Council: Civil Rights Litigation for Law Clerks of the Second Circuit Courts (New York, New York) January 2020

Panelist, Federal Bar Council: Sexual Orientation Discrimination Under Title VII: The Second Circuit’s Recent Decision in Zarda v. Altitude Express, Inc. (Westbrook, Connecticut) October 2018

Panelist, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York: Pro Bono Trial Advocacy Training Program (New York, New York) April 2018

Presenter, Federal Bar Council, Inn of Court, Continuing Legal Education Programs, 2013-2023

Presenter, New York Law School, Continuing Legal Education Program, Ethics in a Digital Age: Recent Amendments to the ABA Model Rules, New York Law School (New York, New York) June 2013

Panelist, Federal Bar Council, Continuing Legal Education Program: Brief Writing, Brooklyn Law School (Brooklyn, New York) June 2010

Court Admissions

United States District Courts for the Eastern, Northern, Southern, and Western Districts of New York; District of Columbia; District of New Jersey; and Northern District of Illinois

United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits

United States Supreme Court

■ ■ ■

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

DAVID B. SHANIES