Rankin & Taylor

Attorneys at Law __________________________________________________________________________ 350 Broadway, Suite 701 Paula@DRMTlaw.com New York, NY 10013 Phone: 212-226-4507 Fax: 212-658-9480
The Law Office of Rankin & Taylor has been approached by a person who participated in the Occupy protest of President Obama's visit to NYC on November 29 and was penned in for 3 hours with a group of others. We're pretty sure that's not right and are thinking of bringing a class action on behalf of this person and others. (The event itself is described here: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/30/occupy-protesters-mobilize-forobamas-visit/ .) We think it's interesting because the NYPD will not be able to deny federal involvement since the president was involved. This will let us reach the issue of how involved federal agencies are involved on the policing of Occupy Wall Street. We also anticipate that this will be an opportunity to address some of the ongoing issues in regards to NYPD's use of pens to control protestors, a long-term issue which we believe we have an ability to challenge through this litigation. We think there is a viable claim for everyone who was there and will be partnering with a more experienced firm on both federal discovery and class actions. A few caveats - this is likely to take a long time and not result in huge recoveries for the class members. On our end we expect reasonable opportunities to recover attorney's fees from the other side -NOT from OWS -- in this litigation so while it has good political value we would not view the case as pro-bono project. In the past, in movement related mass litigation, our office has matched client donations to related groups, i.e. after the mass action around Critical Mass Bike Rides in New York the attorneys matched $21,000 worth of client donations to cycling and civil liberties groups. We would expect to institute a similar arrangement if we are successful in this litigation. We are looking for people who were there and trapped in that particular pen to get in touch with us about potential participation in the litigation (contact info below). We would love to invite you to our office for a short conversation. Please forward this message as widely as you think is appropriate. If you are going to a meeting (e.g. Spokes or GA), an announcement would also be great. Feel free to call with any questions. In solidarity,

Paula Z. Segal Law Clerk