Joshua S. Moskovitz is an experienced litigator and trial attorney leading the firm’s Civil Litigation and Appellate practices.
Josh has substantial experience litigating complex civil rights and class action lawsuits in state and federal courts. He has overseen groundbreaking civil rights cases challenging widespread, unconstitutional policing policies and discriminatory employment practices. Josh has represented plaintiffs in landmark cases such as the NYPD “stop-and-frisk” litigation and the civil case brought by the five men exonerated of the 1989 Central Park attack. Josh has also represented the families of Eric Garner and Barrington Williams in pursuing successful wrongful death claims against the City of New York.
In his class action experience, Josh is lead counsel on a pending case against the State of New York brought on behalf of a class of New York State Corrections Officers who have been denied reasonable religious accommodations. Josh is also co-counsel in a major class action lawsuit against the City of Rochester arising from decades of racially biased policing.
Along with his trial work, Josh maintains an active appellate practice and has successfully litigated appeals in federal and state courts, including the New York Court of Appeals. Josh was lead appellate counsel in Brown v. City of New York, 798 F.3d 94 (2d Cir. 2015), which established important Fourth Amendment precedent for excessive force claims, and Hughes v. City of New York, 680 Fed. App’x 8 (2d Cir. 2017), which resulted in an important win for Josh’s client on a novel First Amendment claim.
Josh graduated summa cum laude from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and has been inducted in the Order of the Coif. During law school, Josh was a staff member and Articles Editor of the Cardozo Law Review, and he co-founded the Cardozo Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. After receiving his law degree, Josh spent two years clerking for the Honorable James L. Dennis of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Josh has lectured on various topics, including civil rights litigation, and has volunteered his time as a Supervising Clinical Attorney for the Cardozo Law School Criminal Appeals Clinic. He has consistently been identified as a “Super Lawyer” and “Rising Star” because of his outsized success over the past decade in the areas of civil rights, employment discrimination, and appeals.
Josh is admitted to practice in all state courts in New York and New Jersey, and in all United States District Courts in New York and New Jersey. Josh is also admitted before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fifth, and D.C. Circuits.
Practice Areas:
- Civil Litigation
- Civil and Criminal Appeals
- Civil Rights and Employment Discrimination
- Class Actions
- Personal Injury
- Mass Tort
Bar Admissions:
- State of New York
- State of New Jersey
- United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
- United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
- United States District Court, Southern District of New York
- United States District Court, Eastern District of New York
- United States District Court, Northern District of New York
- United States District Court, Western District of New York
- United States District Court, New Jersey
Honors:
- Super Lawyers (2022)
- Super Lawyers Rising Star (2015-2021)
Education:
- Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, J.D., summa cum laude (2010)
- Order of the Coif
- Cardozo Law Review, Articles Editor (Vol. 31, 2009)
- Public Service Scholar
- Felix Frankfurter Award for “outstanding academic achievement, maturity, responsibility, diligence, and judgment”
- National Lawyers Guild, Cardozo chapter (Executive Committee)
- The Cardozo Jurist student newspaper (co-founder and Editor-in-Chief)
- New York University, B.A. (Sociology), magna cum laude (2005)
Academic Experience:
- Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Criminal Appeals Clinic, Clinical Practice Adviser (April 2013-November 2018)
- City University of New York School of Law, Guest Lecturer (November 2018)
- Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Civil Rights Clinic, Guest Lecturer (October 2014, April 2016)
Panels and Conferences:
- Cardozo Law School Alumni panel on the murder of George Floyd Panelist (June 11, 2020)
- CUNY School of Law panel on legal practice (Dec. 4, 2018)
- Cardozo Law School: Policing, Conflict, and Change conference, Panelist (March 12, 2015)
- Cardozo Law School: Acknowledging Race in a “Post-Racial” Era, Student co-organizer (April 30, 2010)
Publications:
- Expanding Access to Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Through Parity Laws and the Affordable Care Act, Reentry Planning for Offenders with Mental Disorders: Policy and Practice (Henry A. Dlugacz, ed., Civic Res. Inst. 2015)
- Note: The Usual Practice: Raising and Deciding Failure to Exhaust Available Administrative Remedies as a Defense Under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, 31 Cardozo L. Rev. 1859 (2010)
Notable Cases:
- Sughrim v. State of New York, No. 19-cv-7977, 2020 WL 7047697 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 30, 2020) (defeated motion to dismiss class action complaint brought on behalf of state corrections officers facing religious discrimination)
- Brown v. City of New York, No. 15-cv-04091 (S.D.N.Y. 2020) (secured $2.55 million settlement for the estate of Barrington Williams for deliberate indifference claims from the failure of police officers to provide CPR and use an AED)
- Ezekwo v. Quirk, 784 Fed. App’x 79 (3d Cir. 2019) (won remand for hearing on whether an enforceable settlement had been reached)
- Jingrong v. Chinese Anti-Cult World Alliance, 311 F. Supp. 3d 514 (E.D.N.Y. 2018) (won summary judgment on issue of the right to practice religion without interference following evidentiary hearing before Hon. Jack B. Weinstein)
- Pettiford v. City of New York, 17-cv-05273 (E.D.N.Y.) (secured $280,000 settlement for excessive force and false arrest claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983)
- Floyd v. City of New York, No. 08-cv-01034 (S.D.N.Y.) (co-counsel for plaintiffs’ class during remediation phase of the stop-and-frisk litigation)
- Estate of Eric Garner (co-counsel in negotiating $6.9 million settlement with the City of New York for Mr. Garner’s wrongful death)
- Hughes v. City of New York, 680 Fed. App’x 8 (2d Cir. 2017) (won reversal of order granting motion to dismiss First Amendment retaliation claim)
- Syed v. City of New York, 16-cv-04789 (S.D.N.Y. 2016) (secured preliminary injunction against the NYPD on behalf of police officer facing religious discrimination)
- Mitchell v. City of New York, 841 F.3d 72 (2d Cir. 2016) (on the briefs) (won reversal of summary judgment for false arrests)
- Brown v. City of New York, 798 F.3d 94 (2d Cir. 2015) (won reversal of summary judgment and secured remand for trial on excessive force claim)
- People v. Phillips, 124 A.D.3d 493 (1st Dep’t 2015) (won reduction in sentence from arson conviction)
- Matter of Mitchell v. City of New York, 134 A.D.3d 941 (2d Dep’t 2015) (won reversal of denial of late notice of claim petition for a false arrest claim)
- McClary v. City of New York, No. 12-cv-118 (E.D.N.Y.) (won motion to amend to add a Monell claim based on NYPD’s lack of training for executing search warrants and secured $220,000 settlement for woman whose house was destroyed during search)
- People v. Taylor, 15 N.Y.3d 518 (2010) (on the briefs) (won reversal of depraved indifference murder conviction)
