Jonathan Abady

Partner at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP

Jonathan S. Abady is a prominent civil rights attorney and founding partner of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP (ECBAWM), one of the leading civil rights law firms in the United States.1 2 With over 25 years of experience, Abady has established himself as a highly influential figure in the legal community, particularly in the areas of civil rights, voting rights, and complex litigation.

Career Highlights

Civil Rights Cases:: Abady has been involved in several high-profile civil rights cases, including:

Representing the family of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy shot and killed by Cleveland police in 20142
Being part of the legal team that helped free Meek Mill, a recording artist wrongfully imprisoned in Philadelphia1
Leading two major class actions resulting in historic reforms in the New York City jail system at Rikers Island1 3

Voting Rights:: He has litigated significant voting rights cases in both the Bush-Gore and Obama-McCain presidential elections.1 2 In the 2020 Presidential election, Abady was also involved in legal proceedings related to voting rights.3

Supreme Court Experience:: Abady successfully litigated and argued Gasperini v. The Center for Humanities in the United States Supreme Court, a seminal case in Seventh Amendment jurisprudence.1

Recent Achievements

In 2024, Forbes Magazine named Abady as one of the country's top 200 lawyers.3 6
In 2019, City & State named him one of the 50 most influential lawyers in New York.3 4
Since 2008, he has been consistently recognized as a Super Lawyer and included in The Best Lawyers in America for civil rights law.1 3

Notable Clients

Abady has represented a diverse range of high-profile clients, including:

Harry Belafonte
Carl Bernstein
Donald Sultan
Tim Witherspoon
Ronnie Spector
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
The City of Hoboken in groundbreaking climate change litigation3 6

Background and Education

Before his current role, Abady worked as a supervising attorney with the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem.1 2 He received his J.D. from New York University School of Law, where he was a Root-Tilden-Snow Scholar.3 Prior to law school, Abady worked in international human rights in Latin America and even presented testimony to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva regarding the war in Nicaragua.1 2

Jonathan S. Abady's LinkedIn profile (username: jonathan-abady-670578a) reflects his current position as Partner at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP.5