The full Dechert team with (pro bono client) Shaurn Thomas in December in Dechert’s office in Philadelphia when he was signing the settlement papers. Left to Right: Tiffany Engsell, Stephen Brown, Shaurn Thomas, Jim Figorski and Stefanie Tubbs.
Before he became a lawyer, Dechert’s James Figorski spent 25 years as a police officer in Philadelphia. That experience proved key, first in winning exoneration for Shaurn Thomas, who served 24 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, and now, in securing a $4.15 million civil settlement from the city of Philadelphia for wrongful conviction.
Moreover, the Dechert pro bono team, which also included civil rights counsel Stephen Brown and associates Tiffany Engsell and Stefanie Tubbs plus co-counsel Paul Messing and David Rudovsky of Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing, Feinberg & Lin, did it all without the aid of DNA evidence.
