For more than 40 years, we’ve gone to court for everyday people, taking on some of the most powerful institutions in the country. A few of the fights we’re proud of — for families, workers, students, and the environment:
Parisi v. GreenSky
Susan Parisi, a veteran and cancer survivor, about to start chemotherapy — thought she was signing for the no-interest window loan she’d been promised when a salesman had her sign on his iPad. Instead, she alleges, she was pulled into a bait-and-switch the CFPB has documented, saddled with a loan near 25% interest for windows that were never installed. When the company tried to force her dispute into private arbitration, we took the fight to the Tenth Circuit and won, Susan will get her day in court.
Shelby v. Huntsville
Nigel Shelby was a fifteen-year-old Black, openly gay freshman at Alabama’s Huntsville High School. After he endured relentless anti-LGBTQ+ and racial harassment that school officials failed to stop, Nigel died by suicide. His family sued, and we secured a settlement requiring the Huntsville City Board of Education to change how it protects students — extending its anti-discrimination policies to cover sexual orientation and gender nonconformity, training staff to spot and stop harassment, and tracking every complaint, with outside experts reviewing its progress. Nothing can bring Nigel back, but these reforms are meant to protect the students who follow.
Environmental Organizations v. Hamilton & HRK Holdings, LLC.
For two decades, Florida let the Piney Point plant, a derelict phosphate site, near Tampa Bay piled with mountains of radioactive waste operate without a Clean Water Act permit. In 2021 a liner failed and more than 215 million gallons of contaminated water poured into the bay, fueling the worst red tide in roughly half a century. Representing five environmental groups, we sued the state and the site’s owner and secured commitments from Florida to draft a stronger Clean Water Act permit, fund independent monitoring of the site’s impact on Tampa Bay, and open the cleanup to public oversight.
Sandoval v. Riverside County
In Riverside County, people who’ve been arrested but convicted of nothing can sit in jail for days for one reason: they can’t afford the bail amount police set at the moment of arrest. In 2024, 88% of the county’s jail population was awaiting trial, not serving a sentence. We’re challenging this wealth-based jailing on behalf of detained residents — joined by faith leaders Rabbi David Lazar and Reverend Jane Quandt, to end a practice California courts have repeatedly found unconstitutional.
Parsonage v. Walmart
When Tina Parsonage applied for a job at Walmart, the company ran a background check that, she alleges, violated California’s consumer-reporting law by failing to give her the clear, standalone disclosure the statute requires. Walmart didn’t dispute breaking the rules — it argued she wasn’t “injured” enough to sue, and a trial court tossed her case. We took the fight up on appeal and won: in February 2026 the California Court of Appeal held that a plaintiff need only show a statutory violation to have standing in state court, clearing the way for her claim and helping keep California’s consumer protections enforceable.
Williamson v. Heritage Preschools LLC and Heritage Preschools of Homewood, LLC.
When a Black toddler moved into a new class at his overwhelmingly white Alabama preschool, where he was the only Black child, his teacher began writing him up for ordinary two-year-old behavior that drew no discipline for his white classmates: thirty write-ups in barely three weeks. After his family complained, the school expelled him, then revoked his grace period the moment his mother mentioned reporting the discrimination. The family sued under a Reconstruction-era civil-rights law, and in March 2025 we beat back the school’s attempt to end the case early — the court denied its motion to dismiss, and the family’s case is moving forward.
