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Top Law Firms Call on Albany to Enact Clean Slate Legislation

With the final FY2023 New York State budget just a few weeks away, nearly 50 leaders of the country’s top law firms, including Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, and Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, released a memo in support of the Clean Slate New York Act and called on the New York State Legislature to immediately pass the legislation, as reported by Law360.

If passed, the bill would end the long-term consequences of a conviction record by establishing an automatic process for sealing most records after the requirements of the criminal legal system have been met.

The collateral damage of a criminal conviction can be wide-ranging and enduring — permanently barring many individuals from basic opportunities like employment and housing — a reality that many Legal Aid clients suffer from on a regular basis. With this memo, BigLaw joins an ever-expanding coalition of supporters that includes labor unions, business leaders, and faith leaders.

“As lawyers, we believe that we need a system for sealing criminal records that in fact works. The current discretionary record-sealing system, which requires New Yorkers to apply to a court for relief, has proven to be inadequate and ineffective,” the memo reads in part. “The current law is complex, difficult to navigate and far too limited in scope. Accordingly, notwithstanding the efforts of legal aid organizations and private firms to provide pro bono representation in this area, in the four years since the current sealing law went into effect, fewer than 2,500 individuals – less than 1 percent of eligible New Yorkers – have had their records cleared.”

“New York has a long history of enacting important reforms to support full participation in the life and economy of this state,” the memo continues. “We must continue this tradition by passing Clean Slate legislation.”