Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld, and the late Johnnie Cochran, Jr. formed Cochran Neufeld & Scheck, LLP, in 1998 to leverage their vast collective trial experience in service of social justice. Today the firm, now Neufeld Scheck & Brustin, LLP, has evolved into one of country’s most successful trial boutiques, applying a high-stakes, trial-driven model to a variety of complex civil matters.
At NSB, we believe that accepting a small number of important high-impact cases and devoting extensive resources to each case enables us to secure the best results for our clients and achieve the maximum impact in our practice areas. NSB’s highly selective approach to both the cases we accept and the attorneys we employ means that we can afford to treat each case as if it is our only case. Our lean and efficient trial teams are actively led by our senior partners, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, who are among the most experienced trial lawyers in the country. All of our partners have substantial trial experience in federal and state court, and teach or consult on matters including constitutional civil rights law, litigation strategy and trial practice. Our associates and fellows have served as judicial law clerks at the federal appeals court and district court levels, are former law review editors at the nation’s elite law schools, and graduated at the top of their class. We partner with leading litigators in their respective fields nationwide any time we litigate outside New York or outside one of our primary practice areas.
Our track record speaks to the benefits of this model: the percentage of our caseload we take to trial in complex civil matters is higher than almost any firm nationwide, and our unparalleled record of success includes substantial jury verdicts in some of the most difficult cases to prove. When we settle cases, we achieve record settlements because we litigate with the goal of winning and collecting judgments. We also have obtained unusual injunctive relief, such as an independent audit of the City of Cleveland Police Department Crime Lab, and a contractual agreement with the City of Detroit Police Department to videotape all police interrogations. Our partners’ collective trial experience and their active involvement in cases ensures that we focus discovery on what matters most for trial. From the outset of every case we collaborate with sophisticated trial experts and use cutting-edge technology—including jury focus groups and state-of-the-art graphics—to build sound theories and tell compelling narratives.
We firmly believe that we can litigate and win against any defendant, no matter how big, on any complex civil issue. Indeed, while the firm’s primary focus has been constitutional civil rights litigation—including wrongful conviction, police misconduct and prison suits—we have expanded to accept selected cases in the following areas: corporate misconduct, individual and class employment discrimination, catastrophic personal injury, qui tam and whistleblower actions, appeals, and contingent-fee-based corporate litigation. We are also available on a limited basis for general trial practice and strategic consultation.