Million-Dollar Cases

Thompson v. HUD – Obtained settlement that provides 4,400 housing vouchers and mobility counseling, worth a total of over $1 billion, to enable poor Black families to move from public housing and other segregated areas of Baltimore City to communities of opportunity throughout the Baltimore region. Co-lead counsel, together with the Maryland ACLU and NAACP Legal Defense Fund  (1998–2013).

Luquetta v. Regents of the University of California – Won $49 million for University of California professional degree students for tuition overcharges (2012).

Kashmiri v. Regents of the University of California – Won $42 million for University of California students for tuition overcharges; judgment affirmed on appeal at 156 Cal. App. 4th 809 (2007).

Successfully represented a management services company in arbitration for breach of contract by a medical cannabis growing, processing, and retail business, with damages valued in excess of $25 million (2020).

Won jury verdict of $15 million for a young man who was sexually abused by a lawyer (2004).

Successfully represented a major provider of medical services in a $15 million contract dispute with local government.

James Owens v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore – Obtained $9 million settlement on behalf of a man who was wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for 21 years after Baltimore homicide detectives concealed exculpatory evidence (2018).

Estate of Malcolm Bryant v. Baltimore Police Department – Obtained an $8 million settlement for the family of a man who was wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for nearly 18 years for a murder he did not commit as a result of misconduct by a detective and forensic analyst within the Baltimore Police Department. Mr. Bryant was exonerated in 2016 after a court-ordered DNA test proved his innocence (2022).

Umar Burley and Brent Matthews v. Baltimore Police Department – Obtained an $8 million settlement for two men who were wrongfully imprisoned for a combined 11 years because plainclothes officers of the Baltimore Police Department (some of whom later joined the Gun Trace Task Force) planted heroin in their car (2020).

Won $7 million at trial for a mother whose toddler had been killed by a pit bull, and collected all of it after convincing Maryland’s highest court that a landlord with knowledge and control of a tenant’s dangerous pet should be held responsible for the pet’s attacks on visitors (1998).

Won $7 million verdict for roofer who suffered debilitating back pain as a result of a car crash (2012).

Obtained $6.5 million for family of unarmed man shot eight times and killed by Baltimore County police officer after his mother called 911 to report that he was intoxicated and suicidal (2021).

Obtained $6 million settlement, plus a commitment from Target to make its website accessible, in a class action for the company’s failure to make www.target.com accessible to the blind. The case established the applicability of the Americans with Disabilities Act to websites that relate to physical places of public accommodations.

Aquino v. Rentals 4 U – Won award of nearly $5 million for three victims of real estate flipping in Baltimore City.

Won more than $4 million in arbitration for a female Chief Technology Officer at a high-tech startup who was paid less than other C-level executives.

Busch v. Clise Coal Co. – Won $3.9 million verdict for family of a worker electrocuted when a crane operator used a crane too close to high-voltage power lines (2013).

Heath v. Perdue Farms – Recovered $2.4 million in overtime pay and fees on behalf of low-wage poultry workers. 87 F. Supp. 2d 452 (D. Md. 2000).

Ford v. Baltimore City Department of Social Services – Obtained settlement of more than $2 million for a child seriously injured in foster care (2007).

Fenwick-Schaefer v. Winchester Homes, Inc. – Won $2 million verdict for discriminatory advertising by a large housing developer that used exclusively white models in its ads, a result that was recognized by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights with its “Outstanding Achievement Award in the Field of Fair Housing” (1994).

Obtained nearly $2 million settlement without filing suit on behalf of German intellectual property rights holder against major law firm for professional malpractice.

The Estate of Robert Ethan Saylor v. Regal Cinemas, Inc. – Obtained $1.9 million settlement on behalf of the parents of a young man with Down syndrome who was killed by deputy sheriffs who dragged him from a movie theater for the “crime” of wanting to watch a movie a second time without buying a second ticket. Brown, Goldstein & Levy’s litigation of this case included successfully defeating the officer defendants’ Fourth Circuit appeal of the district court’s denial of qualified immunity (2018).

Won $1.75 million for a senior female executive wrongfully denied promotion by a Fortune 500 company.

Successfully negotiated class action settlement agreement that paid $1.55 million to school bus drivers whose employer failed to pay the workers proper overtime and straight-time wages.

Obtained settlement of over $1.5 million on behalf of a client who rear-ended a truck that had a defectively designed underride guard (2014).

Won award of $1.5 million in fees for plaintiffs’ attorneys for their enforcement of partial consent decree desegregating Baltimore’s public housing (2001).

Obtained $1.4 million settlement on behalf of class of 2,500 students who were charged a new fee after already having registered for classes (2015).

Successfully negotiated $1 million settlement on behalf of restaurant workers against the Mo’s Seafood chain for wage and hour violations (2018).

Won $1 million verdict in a counter-suit on behalf of a girl who was sexually abused by a lawyer, after the lawyer-abuser sued for defamation, a result that was recognized by the National Law Journal as one of the “Top Defense Wins of 2000.”

Obtained $1 million settlement for a girl who was sexually abused by the father of children for whom she babysat.

Blank v. Belvedere Restaurant Group – Won a $1 million verdict for a woman who fell down a poorly lighted flight of stairs next to the dance floor at a nightclub, breaking her pelvis and wrist.

After a government agency cancelled a software developer’s contract and refused to pay its $1 million+ bill, we developed and executed a strategy that convinced the agency to pay the bill in full and cost the client less than $25,000 in fees (2013).