Eric Eingold

The Project

The Fair Chance Project will utilize New York City’s ban-the-box-law, the Fair Chance Act, to combat employment discrimination against youth in New York City, educate stakeholders of the Act, and analyze the Act’s impact.

The criminal justice system is critically flawed. It disproportionately targets communities of color and creates collateral consequences that penalize people long after they leave jail or prison. Discrimination against people with criminal records is one of the most severe collateral consequences resulting from our country’s policy of mass incarceration. In New York, criminal convictions stay on a person’s record for life, including 16 and 17-year-olds who are automatically charged as adults. By combatting employment discrimination against people with criminal records, the Project will help young people overcome the consequences of growing up in over-policed communities and obtain lives of dignity and purpose that accompany meaningful employment.

Fellowship Highlights

In the first year, Eric has:

• Participated in two class action cases against major employers in New York City in cases that challenge those companies criminal record screening policies;
• Filed three cases in the New York City Commission on Human Rights on behalf of clients unlawfully discriminated against on the basis of their criminal records. One of those cases is in settlement negotiations and will require the employer to receive trainings on the Fair Chance Act;
• Led 24 Know Your Rights Workshops about criminal records-based employment discrimination to over 700 New York City youth; and
• Provided full representation to 37 clients and worked on things like criminal record reviews and corrections, job application advice, and has filed lawsuits against employers for unlawful criminal record discrimination.

What’s Next

In the next year, Eric plans to:

• File a case in federal court against an employer that denied a client employment on the basis of the client’s criminal record in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Fair Chance Act;
• Present to employers and business associations about their obligations under the Fair Chance Act; and
• Prepare 50 new clients for job interviews and strategize with them to get a sense of what to do if employers seek to deny employment to them because of their criminal records.

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