Public Interest Work

Aurelian public interest work:

  • Aurelian’s lawyers have dedicated significant hours of their professional careers to pro bono work. They seek to leverage their skill sets — particularly as appellate litigators — to advance justice for those who cannot afford counsel. To that end, Aurelian partner Brian M. Feldman has served on the pro bono appellate panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

  • Aurelian’s lawyers believe that, in the right cases, class actions can prove vital to the interests of justice and the public. Because class action lawyers abound, we look for opportunities to develop or support novel cases. Our lawyers have worked on class actions on behalf of safety-net healthcare providers, consumers, and prisoners.

Experience

Illustrative experiences of Aurelian attorneys, including from prior representations before founding Aurelian Law:

Mosaic Health, Inc. v. Sanofi-Aventis U.S., LLC, __ F.4th __ (2d Cir. 2025). In this putative class action on behalf of safety-net healthcare facilities that provide care to the uninsured and underinsured, Aurelian obtained the green light to proceed against four drugmakers, in a win that earned the firm Law360’s “Legal Lion” accolade.

Daniels v. Moores, 24-30 (2d Cir. Mar. 21, 2025). Working with trial counsel at the Law Office of Amy Jane Agnew in a statewide certified class action, Aurelian obtained this historic appellate victory to secure the rights of vulnerable chronic pain and neuropathy patients throughout New York State prisons. The Second Circuit affirmed a permanent injunction and a $3,796,902.82 fee award under the Prison Litigation Reform Act.

Irvin v. Harris, 944 F.3d 63 (2d Cir. 2019). The U.S. Court of Appeals adopted the arguments of Aurelian partner Brian M. Feldman to issue this doubly important decision — first, because it established procedural protections for class members facing the termination of consent decrees and, second, because, in practice, it reversed actions that deprived a class of infirm New York State prisoners of vital healthcare protections.

Whatley v. Warden, 141 S. Ct. 1299 (2021). Aurelian Counsel Sheila Baynes petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for certiorari on behalf of a death row inmate who was made to reenact his crime in front of the jury at sentencing while wearing clanking arm and leg chains, prompting Justice Sotomayor to observe that "it is hard to imagine a more prejudicial example of needless shackling." 

Brown v. Victor, No. 1:2011 CV 00035 (W.D.N.Y.). Aurelian partner Laura K. Schwalbe served as pro bono counsel to Andre Brown, who had been convicted on two counts of attempted murder that were ultimately vacated. The pro bono team obtained a quarter million dollars for Mr. Brown in a settlement of his long-running 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claims against prison guards at Attica Correctional Facility, earning honors from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York for their achievement.

Williams v. Priatno, 829 F.3d 118 (2d Cir. 2016). As part of his Second Circuit Pro Bono Panel service, Aurelian partner Brian M. Feldman argued and won this precedent-setting appeal, which effectively struck prison rules in the New York State prison system.

Meyer v. Kalanick, 174 F. Supp. 3d 817 (S.D.N.Y. 2016). This novel decision extended antitrust law to the digital platform space as a result of the advocacy of Aurelian partner Brian M. Feldman, who headed a five law-firm team in this antitrust class action litigation against the then-CEO of Uber.