Partner, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP

Ilann M. Maazel is nationally recognized for helping the most vulnerable: children, people with disabilities, disenfranchised voters, and victims of sexual abuse and harassment, police abuse, prison abuse, wrongful convictions, and all forms of discrimination. Mr. Maazel helped save the High Line in New York City, led the 2016 presidential recount effort in Pennsylvania, and has brought class actions to end the tampon tax, end delays in Bronx Criminal Court, provide services to disabled preschool children, reduce violence in New York City prisons, and defend millions of Americans surveilled by the National Security Agency.

As a commercial litigator, Mr. Maazel has represented Martha Stewart, the Apollo Theater, Everytown for Gun Safety, the NAACP, Newegg, the Children’s Aid Society, The New York Foundling, the New York City Council, and executives and employees in financial services, health care, fashion, advertising, academia, and the non-profit sector.

Mr. Maazel is a ten-time “Super Lawyer” (2012-2021), Legal Services Pro Bono Leader, Legal Aid Society Pro Bono Publico award winner, Coro Leadership fellow, Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, and recipient of an Echoing Green Public Service Fellowship, awarded to “outstanding individuals who are committed to public service work.”

Partner, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP

Sam Shapiro has a broad litigation practice that includes civil rights cases and commercial matters. Mr. Shapiro has worked on cases involving police and correction officer misconduct, housing discrimination, disability discrimination, First Amendment rights, wrongful conviction, and labor rights. He has also represented commercial clients in real estate disputes, arbitrations, and obtaining discovery for use in foreign proceedings.

Prior to joining the firm in 2010, Mr. Shapiro worked at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights and the International Organization for Migration in Geneva. He also served as a Fellow for Global Rights in Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo, documenting economic and social rights abuses caused by the exploitation of natural resources. Mr. Shapiro graduated cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center where he served as a senior editor on the Georgetown Journal of International Law.

Mr. Shapiro was named a “Rising Star” from 2018-2020 and a “Super Lawyer” in 2021.

In 2004, attorney Tom Hoffman answered a letter from Kareem Bellamy who was in prison for a murder he did not commit. Hoffman secured the help of the Law Firm of Cravath Swain Moore and in 2008, after serving 14 years in prison, Mr. Bellamy was released. In 2020 Tom, co-counseling with Jonathan Hiles, successfully vacated the conviction of Robert Majors who was in his 23rd year of a 62 to life sentence. That same year, Hoffman successfully vacated the convictions of Emmanuel Cooper and Jaythan Kendrick, both in their 27th year of a life sentence. Most recently, Tom served on the legal team that exonerated three people serving life sentences for 1996 murders they did not commit.

Associate Attorney, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP

Nairuby L. Beckles is an experienced litigator whose broad practice encompasses civil rights and commercial litigation in federal and state court.

Prior to joining ECBAWM in 2021, Ms. Beckles was a trial attorney with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission litigating Title VII workplace harassment cases. She clerked for the Honorable Benita Y. Pearson of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Ms. Beckles was also litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, where in addition to commercial litigation, she worked on the team that secured the freedom of a pro bono client who was wrongfully convicted of murder.

Ms. Beckles earned her Juris Doctor from Howard University School of Law where she was a recipient of the national Burton Award for Distinguished Legal Writing, senior editor of the Howard Law Journal, and student attorney in the Civil Rights Clinic. During law school, she also interned at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and for the Honorable Gerald Bruce Lee (ret.) of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Before becoming an attorney, Ms. Beckles enjoyed a decade-long career in the federal government where she worked at the Pentagon in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the CDC, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a special assistant to senior executives, deputy assistant director of learning and development, and strategic human resources advisor. She received her Master of Public Administration from the University of Georgia and her Bachelor of Engineering in Bio-medical Engineering from Hofstra University.

Jonathan Hiles is a civil rights lawyer and activist. He has worked on wrongful conviction cases since 2013, when he was a student at Harvard Law School. Jonathan has helped to exonerate two innocent men and to secure financial settlements for unjust incarceration. He also worked on a civil lawsuit, Bellamy v. City of New York, that expanded liability for prosecutorial misconduct in New York. In addition to his legal practice, Jonathan has served on Democratic campaigns, including as a Biden-Harris voter protection director and as a campaign manager for a progressive district attorney candidate.

Paralegal, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP

Kathryn joined ECBAWM as a paralegal in 2019, after graduating from University College London with her master’s degree in Human Rights Law. Prior to receiving her degree, Kathryn worked for the Tahirih Justice Center, where she worked with and advocated for immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. Previously, Kathryn was a Werner Fornos Fellow at the Population Institute, where she conducted qualitative data analysis to measure the effectiveness of reproductive health education in rural Haiti, and a Mame Reily Fellow with the Democratic National Committee, where she worked with the Democratic National Women’s Caucus to expand women’s political efficacy. Kathryn has worked with non-profit organizations in India, advocating for women’s access to secondary education, and in Northern Ireland, promoting peaceful reconciliation within divided communities. Having over three years of experience in social science research and professional advocacy, Kathryn remains dedicated to promoting justice and engendering human rights throughout her professional and personal life.