Kramer Levin has a long-standing partnership with the Urban Justice Center, which is dedicated to serving New York’s most vulnerable residents through a combination of direct legal service, advocacy, community education and organizing. Kramer Levin has funded two Equal Justice Works fellows who have worked on community development projects at the Urban Justice Center, and the firm has handled individual matters referred by the organization, helping launch employee-owned cooperative enterprises and other community development projects. In connection with its former sponsorship of an Equal Justice Works fellow at the Immigrant Defense Project, Kramer Levin represents several immigrants seeking post-conviction relief for their prior counsels’ failure to advise them of the deportation consequences of their guilty pleas, which constituted ineffective assistance of counsel under the principles established by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356 (2010). In addition, Kramer Levin authored an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the Immigrant Defense Project that was cited and commended by the New York Court of Appeals in its decision in People v. Peque, 22 N.Y.3d 168 (2013). In that case, the Court of Appeals strengthened due process protections for immigrants accused of crimes by requiring trial courts to notify noncitizens that they may be deported if they plead guilty to a felony.