The Gearinger Law Group is pleased to announce that founder Brian Gearinger has been named an Unsung Hero by the Youth Law Center, alongside Bryan Vix of Coopers LLP, for their work standing up for a young person’s rights inside California’s juvenile detention system.
The Youth Law Center has spent decades pushing to end the solitary confinement of youth, work that helped lead to a 2016 California law sharply limiting when juvenile facilities can isolate a young person in their cell. When YLC learned that a young man in San Francisco’s juvenile hall had reportedly been kept in isolation for days in apparent violation of that law, Brian and Bryan stepped in to take on the case, and stayed the course even as the defense proved far more aggressive than the facts warranted.
Their work has spanned federal civil rights litigation and the unfamiliar procedures of juvenile court alike, from pursuing access to confidential records and facility documentation to taking depositions and building deep expertise in California’s room-confinement protections, all while treating their young client with the dignity he was denied.
In recognizing the team, the Youth Law Center cited their “extraordinary commitment to enforcing the rights and dignity of young people in juvenile detention.” As YLC put it, a legal right means little unless someone is willing to fight to enforce it, and young people shouldn’t be told to answer for their actions while the systems responsible for their care answer for nothing.
Congratulations to Brian on this well-earned recognition, and to Bryan Vix and the team at Coopers LLP for their partnership on this case.
Learn more about the Youth Law Center’s Unsung Heroes recognition at ylc.org/get-involved/unsung-heroes.
