Corey Stoughton

Corey Stoughton is a seasoned appellate advocate specializing in constitutional law, complex civil litigation, administrative and criminal law. She is widely known for developing and winning innovative claims across a broad range of legal issues and is a nationally recognized expert on free speech, access to justice, police reform, and equalities law.

Corey has argued dozens of appellate matters in federal and state courts, served as counsel of record in matters before the United States Supreme Court, and consulted on legislative and policy development in the United States and overseas. She served as senior counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Department of Justice during the Obama administration and on the White House Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable. For almost a decade, Corey was an adjunct clinical professor at NYU School of Law focused on teaching students how to develop and litigate complex federal civil rights claims.

In June 2023, the New York State Bar Association honored Corey with its prestigious Award for Excellence in Mandated Representation. New York State’s Commission on Judicial Nominations three times included her among the slate of nominees for Associate Justice and Chief Justice of the New York Court of Appeals. 

Prior to joining Selendy Gay as Special Counsel, Corey served in various leadership roles in government and the public interest sector, including Attorney-in-Charge of Law Reform and Special Litigation at New York’s Legal Aid Society; Acting Director and Advocacy Director of Liberty, the U.K.’s preeminent human rights and civil liberties organization; and senior attorney roles at the American Civil Liberties Union’s national office and New York affiliate.

In addition to authoring dozens of amicus briefs in federal and state courts, Corey’s representative matters include:

• American Association of University Professors-Harvard Chapter v. U.S. Dep’t of Justice: challenging the federal government’s unlawful and retaliatory termination of federal funding to Harvard University and infringement on academic freedom
• United Faculty of Florida v. Lamb: challenging a Florida law banning arbitration of union grievances as preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act
• Government Accountability Project v. Ezell: administrative law challenge to executive action stripping federal employees of civil service protections
• Flores-Garcia v. U.S. Customs and Border Protection: appointments clause challenge to expedited removal practices
• Nunez v. City of New York: institutional reform case challenging violence and mismanagement in New York City’s jails
• Payne v. De Blasio: challenging the NYPD’s violent response to protests and targeting of journalists following the death of George Floyd in 2020
• Davis v. City of New York: challenging the NYPD’s unconstitutional stop and frisk policies
• United States v. North Carolina: federal enforcement action challenging a North Carolina law that expressly discriminated against transgender and gender nonconforming individuals
• Hurrell-Harring v. State of New York: a landmark case that established the right to counsel at arraignments in New York and led to historic reforms to New York’s public defense system.

Corey currently serves on the ABA Task Force on the Independence of Public Defense, the Civil Rights Committee of the New York City Bar, the City Bar Task Force on Rikers Island and the New York State Office of Court Administration’s Advisory Committee on the Criminal Procedure Law.  She graduated from Harvard Law School, served as a Fulbright Scholar, and clerked for the Honorable Cornelia G. Kennedy on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.