Slater Slater Schulman is a plaintiffs’ firm that has built one of the largest sexual abuse practices in the country, and its sexual abuse cases include a $4 billion settlement with Los Angeles County over child abuse at MacLaren Hall and juvenile facilities, an $852 million USC settlement over gynecologist George Tyndall, and roles in multi-hundred-million-dollar deals with Catholic dioceses in New York and Los Angeles. The firm also represents roughly 14,600 claimants in the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy, where a court-supervised trust flagged “procedural and factual problems” in a portion of its submissions and a group of its own clients has moved to terminate their fee agreements.
The $4 Billion Los Angeles County Settlement
The firm’s largest result is a $4 billion settlement with Los Angeles County, announced April 4, 2025, resolving child sexual abuse claims tied to the former MacLaren Children’s Center and county juvenile detention facilities. Slater Slater Schulman represented more than 3,500 of the survivor-claimants — over 1,500 from MacLaren Hall and about 2,000 from other facilities including Camp Joseph Scott, Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, and LA County Juvenile Hall.1PR Newswire. Slater Slater Schulman LLP Reaches Historic $4 Billion Settlement With Los Angeles County The broader settlement covers more than 6,800 claims dating back to 1959, most from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.2Los Angeles County. LA County Reaches $4 Billion Tentative Settlement in Thousands of Sexual Abuse Cases
MacLaren Hall was a county-run temporary placement shelter in El Monte that operated from 1961 until 2003. The complaints alleged that staff sexually abused minors and that county leadership knew but failed to intervene. The county did not regularly run background checks until 2001, when 17 employees were found to have disqualifying criminal records.1PR Newswire. Slater Slater Schulman LLP Reaches Historic $4 Billion Settlement With Los Angeles County A 2006 U.S. Department of Justice investigation concluded there was a “systemic failure to protect youth from harm by staff,” with only 4% of employees having received formal child abuse training within the prior two years.3McNicholas & McNicholas LLP. LA County Juvenile Hall Settlement Approval Press Release
The LA County Board of Supervisors approved the settlement on April 29, 2025. The county plans to fund it through reserves, judgment obligation bonds, and departmental budget cuts, with payments running through fiscal year 2050-51.2Los Angeles County. LA County Reaches $4 Billion Tentative Settlement in Thousands of Sexual Abuse Cases Civil rights attorney Ben Crump worked with Slater Slater Schulman on the MacLaren Hall litigation.4Slater Slater Schulman LLP. In the News
Catholic Diocese Settlements
Diocese of Rockville Centre
The Diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island reached a roughly $323 million settlement to resolve its Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which addressed more than 500 clergy sexual abuse claims. The plan was approved in December 2024 by Chief Judge Martin Glenn of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.5Diocese of Rockville Centre. Chapter 11 Resources Slater Slater Schulman represented about 600 survivors in the case.6PR Newswire. Slater Slater Schulman LLP Announces $148 Million Settlement Agreement With the Diocese of Albany The settlement trust began paying claimants in late 2025.7KCIC. Rockville Centre Diocese: Consulting on a Post-Purdue Chapter 11 Reorganization
Diocese of Albany
On March 27, 2026, the Diocese of Albany announced a $148 million settlement to resolve hundreds of sexual abuse claims filed under New York’s Child Victims Act. The diocese filed for Chapter 11 in 2023. A survivors’ committee accepted the deal, but it remains subject to bankruptcy court approval and a vote by all claimants, and diocesan insurers may add to the total.8Spectrum Local News. Albany Diocese Clergy Abuse Settlement The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests described Bishop Mark O’Connell’s accompanying remarks as a “clear and un-nuanced statement of guilt.”9SNAP Network. Diocese of Albany Announces $148 Million Settlement for Abuse Victims
Archdiocese of New York
In mid-2026, the Archdiocese of New York reached a proposed $800 million settlement covering roughly 1,300 child sexual abuse lawsuits filed under the Child Victims Act, avoiding a Chapter 11 filing. The deal calls for an initial $615 million payment followed by $185 million within about 15 months. Survivors can choose a flat $250,000 payment or seek an individualized assessment for a higher amount.10Bloomberg Law. New York Archdiocese Strikes $800 Million Deal With Survivors The archdiocese must also publish and continuously update a list of credibly accused clergy and make abuse documentation available at Iona College.11The New York Times. Archdiocese Abuse Settlement NY The agreement requires unanimous plaintiff consent; if it fails, the archdiocese has said it will file for bankruptcy.
Archdiocese of Los Angeles
In October 2024, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay $880 million to settle claims from 1,353 clergy sexual abuse survivors, capping about 25 years of litigation.12NPR Illinois. Archdiocese of Los Angeles Agrees to Pay $880 Million to Settle Sexual Abuse Claims Payments began in August 2025, and a final payment was made on April 1, 2026.13Archdiocese of Los Angeles. AB 218
USC and the George Tyndall Cases
The firm represented clients in an $852 million settlement reached March 25, 2021, with the University of Southern California over sexual abuse claims against former campus gynecologist George Tyndall. More than 700 women alleged abuse by Tyndall, and the deal resolved claims in California state court.14Slater Slater Schulman LLP. SSS Represents Clients in USC Sexual Abuse Settlement Against Gynecologist
Charles H. Hickey Jr. School in Maryland
On March 4, 2025, Slater Slater Schulman filed a civil complaint in Baltimore Circuit Court on behalf of 69 men who allege they were sexually abused as children at the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School, a Maryland juvenile detention facility. The suit names the State of Maryland and the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services as defendants, alleging that former housing supervisor Ronald Neverdon abused boys at the facility from roughly the mid-1960s through the mid-1990s and that the department knew staff abuse was a persistent problem but failed to act.15PR Newswire. Housing Supervisor Accused of Abusing Nearly 70 Children at Charles H. Hickey Jr. School The case proceeds under the Maryland Child Victims Act, upheld as constitutional by the Maryland Supreme Court on February 3, 2025. As of the filing, Neverdon had not been charged with a crime.16The Baltimore Banner. Charles H. Hickey Jr. School Sexual Abuse Lawsuit
New York State Prison Abuse Cases
Slater Slater Schulman represents over 1,200 individuals alleging sexual abuse in New York State prisons under the Adult Survivors Act. These cases have run into a procedural wall: the New York Attorney General’s office has moved to dismiss roughly 500 of them by invoking strict, decades-old Court of Claims filing requirements that demand precise dates and locations of abuse. In one case, survivor Ernastiaze Moore had his lawsuit dismissed over a one-year typo in the complaint regarding the date of the alleged assault, and his attorneys are appealing.17NY State of Politics. Prison Adult Survivors Act DOCCS Sexual Assault Typo Dismissed Legislation that would exempt Adult Survivors Act cases from those filing requirements passed the New York Senate but remained stalled in the Assembly as of June 2026.18Prison Legal News. New York State Moves to Dismiss Hundreds of Prison Sexual Assault Lawsuits
Boy Scouts of America Claims Under Scrutiny
Slater Slater Schulman represents approximately 14,600 claimants in the Boy Scouts of America sexual abuse bankruptcy, one of the largest caseloads of any firm in the proceeding. The BSA emerged from Chapter 11 in 2023, and a settlement trust was set up to process and pay survivor claims. The firm’s handling of those claims is now the subject of two overlapping disputes.
In June 2024, the BSA Settlement Trust notified the firm that it had identified irregularities in a portion of its submissions and suspended processing of nearly 10,000 of its claims while it investigated. The firm acknowledged “procedural and factual problems” in some submissions and agreed to fund an independent third-party reviewer to vet all its undetermined claims before they proceed to the trust’s determination process. The trust said the discovery confirmed the effectiveness of its court-approved fraud protocol.19Court Filing, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, Case No. 20-10343. BSA Settlement Trust Filing, September 9, 2025
In October 2025, a group of the firm’s own clients filed a motion in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware seeking to terminate their contingency fee agreements with Slater Slater Schulman and reduce the firm’s fees. The claimants alleged the firm had concealed the claims-processing suspension from clients for roughly 18 months, used “strong-arm tactics” to prevent clients from switching attorneys, and prioritized its own fees over its ethical obligations. The motion described the firm as “trial lawyer case aggregators” that had “run amok” and said the firm had told clients its 40% contingency contracts were “iron clad,” threatening to place liens on settlement awards if they tried to leave. The motion asked the court to reduce the firm’s compensation to $250 per claimant.20Omni Agent Solutions. Motion to Terminate Contingency Fee Agreements, Case No. 20-10343
Clifford Robert, an attorney for Slater Slater Schulman, called the accusations “scurrilous” and said the firm was cooperating with the trust to address concerns. The firm also issued a notice offering a 10% reduction in its contingency fee share. A hearing on the motion was scheduled for November 13, 2025. At the time of the filings, claimants in the BSA bankruptcy were reporting recoveries of roughly 1.5% on their claims.20Omni Agent Solutions. Motion to Terminate Contingency Fee Agreements, Case No. 20-10343
Why These Cases Are Happening Now
Most of the firm’s recent sexual abuse work has been made possible by state laws that temporarily suspended or eliminated statutes of limitations for childhood sexual abuse. New York’s Child Victims Act, effective August 14, 2019, expanded the statute of limitations to age 55 and opened a lookback window regardless of when the abuse occurred.21Slater Slater Schulman LLP. NY Child Victims California’s Assembly Bill 218, effective in 2020, created a three-year filing window for California survivors and made the LA County MacLaren Hall litigation possible; the first suit was filed in 2021.2Los Angeles County. LA County Reaches $4 Billion Tentative Settlement in Thousands of Sexual Abuse Cases Maryland’s Child Victims Act, signed in April 2023, opened a similar path for survivors there.15PR Newswire. Housing Supervisor Accused of Abusing Nearly 70 Children at Charles H. Hickey Jr. School Those laws generated thousands of suits against religious institutions, government agencies, schools, and youth organizations, and firms like Slater Slater Schulman have positioned themselves to represent large numbers of claimants across multiple states at once.