Corey Stoughton

Corey Stoughton is a seasoned and versatile appellate advocate with a track record of expertise in constitutional law, civil procedure, statutory interpretation, 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 legal and policy expert on free speech, access to justice, equality and non-discrimination, and police reform.

Corey has argued dozens of appellate matters in federal and state courts and served as counsel of record in matters before the United States Supreme Court. Reflecting her significant appellate expertise, New York State’s Commission on Judicial Nominations has included Corey among the slate of nominees for Associate Justice and Chief Justice of the New York Court of Appeals for each of the last three vacancies on that court. 

Her recent successes include securing a significant appellate victory for investors in Kim v. Jump Trading, resolving a complex issue concerning non-signatory enforcement of arbitration agreements and allowing the investors’ claims to proceed in federal court, as well as helping preserve an $811 million damages award for the former shareholders of a robotic surgery startup in an earnout dispute against Johnson & Johnson before the Delaware Supreme Court.

In addition to her high-stakes commercial practice, Corey leads landmark public impact cases relating to access to justice and the rule of law. In 2025, she successfully obtained summary judgment on behalf of faculty and staff of Harvard University, ending government’s unlawful and retaliatory termination of federal funding and infringement on academic freedom, resulting in a historic judgment restoring more than $2.2 billion in funding and an injunction protecting free speech. More recently, she obtained a ruling on behalf of a major public sector union holding that the Federal Arbitration Act preempts state laws prohibiting collective bargaining for arbitration remedies in labor agreements.

In 2026, Corey was recognized by The American Lawyer as Litigator of the Week and by Law360 as a “Legal Lion” for her role in defeating a defamation action brought by a former Trump administration attorney Stefan Passantino over a 2023 social media post in which her client said Passantino had coached former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson to lie to the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. She also was appointed by the court alongside a former Solicitor General and former federal judge to act as amicus curiae advising the court on issues relating to jurisdiction in Trump v. Internal Revenue Service.

Corey successfully conceived and argued Hurrell-Harring v. State of New York, which established the right to counsel at arraignments in New York and led to historic reforms to New York’s public defense system. For that work and her years of service at the Legal Aid Society, the New York State Bar Association honored Corey with its prestigious Award for Excellence in Mandated Representation in 2023.

In addition to the matters already discussed, Corey’s other representative matters include:

• Lee v. Binance: defending on appeal the denial of Binance’s motion to compel arbitration of a putative class action relating to allegations that the company, one of the world’s largest crypto-asset exchanges, offered and sold unregistered securities in violation of federal and state securities laws.
• Government Accountability Project v. Ezell: administrative law challenge to executive action stripping federal employees of civil service protections without due process and in violation of statutory guarantees.
• Fortis Advisors v. J&J: successfully defended on appeal the largest earnout-related damages award in Delaware history, on behalf of former shareholders of Auris Health, a revolutionary robotic surgery startup, relating to J&J’s breach of a merger agreement and fraud, resulting in its failure to achieve certain earnout milestones.
• Wynn-Williams v. Meta: challenging Meta’s efforts to silence a whistleblower whose best-selling book related misconduct she observed and experienced during her employment at the company.
• Parnell v. Escambia County: representing elementary school students and the authors of the true story of two male penguins who adopted and hatched an abandoned egg at the Central Park Zoo in a First Amendment challenge to a school board’s removal of the book from the school library.
• Hardin v. Tron Foundation: assisting investors alleging securities fraud against the creators of a failed crypto-token in enforcing a third-party subpoena against the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to agency guidance governing the application of securities law to crypto-tokens.
• Small Property Owners of NY v. City of New York: representing low-income tenants defending New York’s rent regulations against a Takings Clause challenge brought by landlords’ associations.
• RARB v. Francis: challenging the Secretary of Homeland Security’s revocation of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuela in a case involving the detention of a New York City civil servant who faced deportation after spending nearly his entire life in the United States.
• Payne v. De Blasio and Davis v. City of New York: actions challenging the NYPD’s protest policing practices, including its targeting of journalists, during protests following the death of George Floyd in 2020 and challenging the NYPD’s stop and frisk policies, both of which resulted in historic settlements currently overseen by federal courts or a federal monitor.

Corey also has a robust practice in authoring amicus briefs on matters of national significance, including in the Supreme Court. Recent representations include:

• Secure Families Initiative and the ACLU of Michigan: as amici curiae in litigation challenging a longstanding Michigan law permitting certain spouses and dependents of military servicemembers and other Michigan voters living overseas to register and vote in Michigan elections. The matter raises significant questions concerning voting rights, residency requirements, and states' authority to establish election rules governing military and overseas voters.
• Two Georgetown Law professors: as amici curiae in a Ninth Circuit appeal addressing whether the Westfall Act precludes state-law damages claims for constitutional violations by federal officers. The matter raises significant questions concerning federalism, government accountability, and the availability of remedies where a Bivens claim may be unavailable.
• Coalition of local prosecutors: as amicus curiae in a Supreme Court case challenging Idaho’s abortion law as in conflict with the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.
• Knight First Amendment Institute: as amicus curiae in an Eleventh Circuit appeal challenging attempts to use state law to designate civil rights and advocacy groups as domestic terrorist organizations.
• New York Lawyers for the Public Interest and a range of civil legal service providers: as amicus curiae in a Ninth Circuit appeal regarding the scope of the statutory right to counsel in reasonable fear proceedings for individuals seeking asylum.
• The Korematsu Center and AAJC: as amici curiae in a Supreme Court case addressing whether U.S. citizens have a liberty interest in their noncitizen spouses’ admission to the country.
• New York City Public Defenders: as amici curiae in New York state court proceedings supporting the New York City Council’s effort to compel the mayor to enforce a city law restricting the use of isolated confinement in New York City jails.

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.

From 2015-2017, she served as senior counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Department of Justice 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.

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, the New York State Office of Court Administration’s Advisory Committee on the Criminal Procedure Law and the Boards of the Fund for Modern Courts, the New York ACLU, and the Center for Community Alternatives.  She graduated from the University of Michigan and 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.