suggest a blog title for this if i use this text as blog need 5 titles Welcome to Lawyers Who Care, the video show podcast that highlights attorneys who go above and beyond for their clients. And on each episode, we will meet a new lawyer and they will share stories of when they went beyond legal counsel for the benefit of their client. My name is <PRESIDIO_ANONYMIZED_PERSON>. I'm the principal of Samalin Wealth, a nationally recognized wealth management firm for lawyers, their firms and their clients. And let's applaud lawyers who care and learn from them. Today, my guest is Alyssa Fuchs. She's a managing partner at Cohen & Fitch, a New York City law firm. Alyssa mainly handles police and corrections misconduct actions. And welcome, Alyssa. Welcome. Thank you for having me today. My pleasure. So tell us how you came to the law. So this is an interesting story, and it's about second chances, which I think are important. And it's so interesting, I actually had to call my mother and preview that I was going to tell this story today so she wouldn't be upset. But the way I actually came to the law is because when I was 18, and I'm almost 40, I went to Binghamton University, and I majored in computer engineering because my grandfather said, do computers, you'll make a lot of money. But when I got there, I realized I actually didn't like it. So instead, I majored in going to frat parties, hanging out with people, and selling weed out of my dorm room. And of course, that got me in trouble. Because even though marijuana is now legal in New York, it was not at the time. And so because of that experience, I had to get a lawyer, a criminal defense lawyer. And I ultimately ended up without a record. and was able to become a lawyer myself. But it really made me interested in the law. And I was like, oh, OK, this is something I'm really interested in. I want to do this. And I definitely don't want to do engineering. So I transferred from Binghamton to Stony Brook. I got a degree in political science. And I graduated in December of 08, right after the market dropped out of the bottom. And there was no jobs. And I was like, I guess I'll go to law school. I think I want to be a criminal defense lawyer. And I want to help other people in the same way that I was helped and I got a second chance. And so that's sort of how I ended up in this career, but I love it. So I'm glad. And so I was just going to ask the follow-up question, which is, well, what brought you to the area of law that you practice? But I think you've already answered that. So yes and no. So I knew getting out of law school, I wanted to be a criminal defense attorney. And I had worked for two summers at the Legal Aid Society for one summer and the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, which is another institutional public defender. And I really, really wanted to be a public defender. But when I graduated from law school in 2012, there was funding issues with institutional defenders. And ultimately, I was not hired for a position with the Legal Aid Society. So I started working for a private criminal defense attorney on a fellowship. And when that ended, I started working for another private criminal defense attorney. And I really didn't love that position. It didn't, I don't know, the work we were doing there, it was, there was a lot of like personal injury stuff that didn't interest me in addition to the criminal defense. So I started looking for a new job and I saw the posting for the job I have now, although at the time I was an associate, now I'm the partner. And I went to go meet with my two partners and we just hit it off like this. And they were like, we do the civil side of criminal defense and we do some criminal defense. And immediately I was like, awesome. This is exactly what I want to be doing. I found my niche and I started working at the firm and I've been there ever since. And now it's been almost 12 years. Wonderful. When we started chatting today, aside from talking about who has the best bagel locally, because apparently our offices are within 15 minutes of each other, we also discussed a case that was important to you. Do you want to share that? Not the bagel, but rather the case? Yes, absolutely. So I have to get a pseudonym because the case is currently pending, but I have a client, we'll call him Donald Willis. Mr. Willis was wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for 10 years for a crime he did not commit. This crime occurred in one borough, and he was in a different borough at the time, and his cell phone records proved that he was definitively in the other borough. And he kept insisting that that was the case, and during the criminal case at the time, they were unable to obtain these phone records that definitively put him in the other borough. He, at that time, was at Rikers Island, and he heard our radio advertisement, because we used to do a lot of advertising on the radio. And we have a hotline number. It's 212 Bad Cops. So he hears 212 Bad Cops, and he writes it down in his Bible. And then he gets convicted of the crime at trial. And when he gets upstate to state prison, he takes this Bible with him, and he's got our number in the back of the Bible. And he keeps the number in the back of the Bible for 10 years while he's in prison. And he continues to pursue the case on appeal and try and obtain these records that he knows are going to put him in a different borough. And ultimately, with the help of a very, very good appellate counsel, who is not me, he gets exonerated because they end up getting these records and they end up throwing out the case against him. he still has this Bible that he kept with him for 10 years. And when he's finally released from prison, he picks up the phone and he calls two on two bad cops and he gets my office because we still have this hotline number 10 years later. And we speak to him, we assess the case and we're like, this is a great case, we're gonna go forward with it. So we meet with him, we start the process, we do the initial filings and about a week or two after we did the initial filings, unfortunately he passed away. which was, you know, unfortunate for the case in a lot of ways, but, you know, not fatal to the case. And the way, the reason why I say not fatal to the case is even though he is not here with us now, my office still represents his estate, and we are still pursuing litigation because we believe very strongly that even though he's not here and he cannot testify, we have lots of other records that will show that he was actually innocent of this crime. I'm assuming this case is still ongoing. It is still ongoing. That's why I have to use a pseudonym. And I'm trying to be a little vague about which boroughs it was in and who exonerated him. But the gist of the story is, you know, for 10 years, he carried that with him. He contacted us. We were glad to help. And even after his death, we still continue to pursue this litigation vigorously. And we're trying to get his estate compensated so that his children will benefit. From any money we might be able to recover for the estate related to the 10 years he spent in custody for a crime he did not commit. What what is your favorite part of this case? Hmm, my favorite part of this case. is knowing that we're really, at least at the beginning, was knowing we were really helping somebody who really deserved our help and who really truthfully was innocent and really spent time behind bars for a crime they didn't commit. You hear about a lot of these stories, people hear about them in the news, but it's much different when you're up close and personal with an exoneree and you realize that you have the ability to help them. Since his death, it's knowing that we still have the ability to help his family and potentially get money from this case and get compensation for those 10 years. And if we are able to get them compensation for them to potentially be able to build generational wealth that their family members did not have before. By the way, everyone, my guest today is Alyssa Fuchs, a managing partner at Cohen & Fitch in New York City. Alyssa, so that people can get in touch with you, can you share some of your contact information? Yep, so even though my home office is located close to your office, my actual physical office is located in downtown Manhattan. We're at 233 Broadway in the Walworth building. We don't do walk-ins, only because we work from home several days a week, but we always are happy to do a free phone consultation. Feel free to give us a call at any time. 212-374-9115 is our main number. If it's after hours, you will still get somebody 24 hours a day to take a message from you. and somebody from my office will get back to you during business hours. And if you can't remember our regular number, it's easy to remember our hotline number. It's 2-1-2 Bad Cops, which actually also spells out 2-1-2 Bad Boss, because side note, we have a small side practice of doing employment discrimination cases. So if you've been discriminated by your employer, harmed by the police, injured while you're in custody, or you're looking for a criminal defense attorney, it's 2-1-2 Bad Cops or 2-1-2 Bad Boss. Wonderful, Alyssa. Thank you so much. This has been the Lawyers Who Care video show podcast that highlights attorneys who go above and beyond. Alyssa clearly fills that role. If you're an attorney or know one who does, feel free to reach out to us, 914-666-6600. 914-666-6600. Alyssa, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you so much for having me today.