The San Jose (CA) City Council agreed Tuesday to add an investigative branch to the City’s Independent Police Auditor (IPA). The vote comes after the City hired Moeel Lah Fakhoury LLP managing partner Andrew Lah to evaluate the San Jose Police Department’s current Internal Affairs process for investigating allegations of misconduct by its officers and recommend potential changes to the process. Working with Russell Bloom, the Independent Police Auditor for the Bay Area Rapid Transit District, and Rania Adwan, former Chief of Staff to the San Francisco and Oakland Police Commissions, Andrew prepared a report recommending the City create a new unit within the IPA.

A San Jose Spotlight article about the City Council Vote is available here.

The full report is available here.

The Albany, New York Community Police Review Board (CPRB) announced the hiring of Moeel Lah Fakhoury LLP partner Andrew Lah to implement infrastructure and foundational practices. The Albany CPRB is an independent body that reviews complaints of misconduct committed by officers of the Albany Police Department.

In a public meeting introducing Mr. Lah and other key players , Mr. Lah explained “our goal is to ensure that the CPRB is exercising its mandate authority and operating within an understanding of the constraints and boundaries of the rules, procedures and law. We want to help build and create institutions within the CPRB, helping establish protocols, providing informed recommendations for investigations, and stakeholder partnerships, and all the things that flow from that.”

The Northeast Public Radio article about the new partnership is here.

On behalf of a coalition of parents and teachers, Moeel Lah Fakhoury LLP, working with Bradley Bernstein Sands, sued the Oakland Unified School District over its plan to close several schools in the city.

The lawsuit, filed in Alameda County Superior Court, alleges the district violated the California Environmental Quality Act because the Board did not analyze whether the school closure plan would exacerbate environmental harms to communities affected by the school closures.

Moeel Lah Fakhoury LLP partner Andrew Lah told CBS News “OUSD was required to engage in an environmental analysis before making its decision to shutter schools. But, rather than follow clear California law, OUSD embarked on a rushed and illegal process to shutter schools that largely ignored the students, families and communities it serves.’”

The full CBS news article is here. Read more about the lawsuit here.

Law360 talked to Moeel Lah Fakhoury LLP partner Hanni Fakhoury about a data breach involving the State Bar of California.

“Fakhoury, the defense lawyer, says that in terms of criminal cases, it is difficult to know what goes into the government’s decision to prosecute data scrapers in situations like this. They tend to go after ‘people who poke the big bears,’ or major institutions like AT&T, Fakhoury said. And there certainly appear to be some big bears involved in this incident, he added. He lauds Judyrecords’ administrator for his quick action, cooperation and transparency, saying it looked like he was trying to do the right thing. However, Fakhoury says the administrator should lawyer up and start being more cautious, given the power and sophistication of the other parties involved. ‘We want people to be altruistic,’ he said. ‘But that’s unfortunately not how the real world works, especially when you're dealing with big institutional actors. And I know that sounds kind of cynical, but it’s the truth, and the quicker he realizes that, the better for him.’”

The full article is available here.

The San Francisco Daily Journal profiled Moeel Lah Fakhoury LLP, noting the “multipronged boutique” doesn’t “look for obvious solutions to complex problems.” The Daily Journal highlighted the firm’s diversity, trial experience and commitment to justice.

Today, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) issued a landmark report on data driven technologies, titled Garbage In, Gospel Out: How Data-Driven Policing Technologies Entrench Historic Racism and ‘Tech-Wash’ Bias in the Criminal Legal System.

Moeel Lah Fakhoury LLP Partner Hanni Fakhoury was a member of the NACDL task force that spent two years conducting research and interviews across the country as detailed in the comprehensive report. The report’s top line recommendation is that such technologies should not be used by police departments because they “are ineffective; lack scientific validity; create, replicate and exacerbate ‘self-perpetuating cycles of bias,’ deeply entrench existing inequalities in the system; hyper-criminalize individuals, families, and communities of color; and divert resources and funds from communities that should be allocated towards social services and community-led public safety initiatives.”

Click here to view NACDL’s press release about the report.

The Verge talked to Moeel Lah Fakhoury LLP Partner Hanni Fakhoury about the Supreme Court’s decision in Van Buren v. United States, which narrowed the scope of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”).

“‘It is still an open question whether the restriction on access has to be technological or contractual,’ says former EFF staff member and computer crime attorney Hanni Fakhoury. As Fakhoury notes, the ruling does say it’s not necessarily ‘plausible’ for the CFAA to hinge on fine semantic distinctions in private contracts. ‘It certainly seems to me they’re uneasy about the idea that the CFAA would somehow become a tool to criminalize contractual obligations,’ he concludes.”

Click here to view the full article.

Moeel Lah Fakhoury LLP partner Shaffy Moeel was inducted as a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers (“ACTL”). The College accepts, by invitation only, the best trial attorneys from the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico “who have mastered the art of advocacy, and whose professional careers have been marked by the highest standards of ethical conduct, professionalism, civility and collegiality.” Ms. Moeel was also selected by ACTL to give the inductee response on behalf of the incoming class at ACTL’s annual spring meeting.