Paul, Weiss Files New Lawsuit to Enforce $2.8 Million Judgment Against Proud Boys

Paul, Weiss and co-counsel the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed a lawsuit to enforce a $2.8 million judgment against the Proud Boys and its leaders. The judgment was awarded in 2023 to our client, the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of Washington's most historic Black churches, after members of the Proud Boys attacked the church during a "stop the steal" rally in December 2020.

The suit, filed in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, alleges that the Proud Boys and its leaders engaged in fraudulent activity to prevent the church from collecting the judgment, including terminating the Proud Boys entity and surrendering its trademark registration. Our client seeks declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as damages, to avoid any transfer of the Proud Boys trademark and to impose a lien on the trademark as the principal asset of the Proud Boys.

The lawsuit is the latest development in a landmark case that Paul, Weiss and the Lawyers Committee brought on behalf of the church in January 2021, seeking to hold the Proud Boys and its leaders accountable for their violent and racist attack on the church. In June 2023, Superior Court Judge Neal Kravitz issued an opinion finding that the Proud Boys and its leaders acted with an evil, discriminatory motive based on race and that their conduct was reprehensible to an extreme degree.

Judge Kravitz awarded the church more than $2.8 million, including $1 million in punitive damages against the Proud Boys entity and its leaders, Enrique Tarrio, John Turano, Ethan Nordean, Joseph R. Biggs and Jeremy Bertino. The punitive damages award was over 27 times the compensatory damages and the fourth-highest ever against white supremacists. Paul, Weiss and co-counsel are currently working to enforce the judgment.

The Paul, Weiss team in the current lawsuit includes litigation partners Daniel Kramer, Jeannie Rhee, Andrew Ehrlich and Erin Morgan, counsel Jonathan Hurwitz, Lissette Duran and Benjamin Klein, and associates Samantha Fry, Walter Bonné, Alex Langsam, Edmund Bao, Joyce Lee and Shawn Estrada; and intellectual property partner Claudine Meredith-Goujon.