Legal Aid’s Lawsuit Against Its Landlord Is Over — But Staff Say the Mold Problem That Drove It Persists

“You’re breathing for a little while and then your throat feels grainy, and your eyes, it just feels like you’re breathing something that’s not supposed to be there,” one attorney said. He said it felt like breathing wildfire smoke. He was coughing after just two hours.

Complaints about the mold and air quality at 111 Livingston were at the center of a year-long legal battle between the Legal Aid Society — known for providing public defense, offering immigration services, and suing bad landlords — and the Leser Group, its landlord. The fight ended over the summer with an agreement that Legal Aid would move back in once the Leser Group made certain improvements, including new health and safety protocols. The landlord promised to revamp the building’s HVAC system, according to a staff attorney, replacing an outdated manual system that had stymied air circulation and allowed mold to fester. (In July 2020, after the dampers had been closed for six months, a Department of Health inspector called it “worst case of black mold [he’d] ever seen in a commercial building.”)

New York Focus interviewed a dozen current and former Legal Aid staffers, several of whom requested to remain anonymous to avoid professional reprisal. Multiple staffers said the mold is visible in the office — on surfaces, book covers, boxes, and computers.

The Legal Aid Society acknowledged that its landlord created a “massive problem” and that the organization is “doing [its] very best to fix it.” While the building isn’t “100% back to normal,” Legal Aid maintains that it’s safe for staff to be in the building. The Leser Group did not respond to New York Focus’s requests for comment.

Before Legal Aid relocated to the temporary space, workers reported adult-onset asthma, chronic sinus infections, laryngitis, bronchitis, and migraines. Some staffers reported issues with their pregnancies, from late term miscarriage to premature birth. While the health concerns have not been directly linked to workplace conditions, staffers say the issues coincided with the existence of mold while they were working in the building.

According to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, “there are no standards for ‘acceptable’ levels of mold in buildings, and the lack of a definitive correlation between exposure levels and health effects makes interpreting the data difficult, if not impossible.”

One attorney, who spent her first day back wiping down surfaces with Lysol, recounted breathing issues and headaches after only two hours back in the Livingston office. During a phone interview with New York Focus, she was interrupted by an exterminator. “Looks like we have a mice problem as well,” she said.

Even though Legal Aid’s deal with Leser mandated a safe and healthy return, staff members say they are being moved back to the office before the improvements are done, and they have received no timeline for completion. One staff member told New York Focus that they are having an all-staff meeting with Legal Aid’s CEO on Monday to demand a safe place to work.

In a statement, Legal Aid said there are “corrective measures” that still need to be taken, but “remaining ‘punch list’ items do not render the space unsafe.”

The union at Legal Aid has enlisted its own environmental health expert to perform independent inspections and advise the union on whether to reoccupy the space. In order to perform a final walkthrough, the union expert is waiting for the landlord to complete the testing and balancing of the system and to examine daily humidity reports, the union staff attorney said.

Jane Fox, Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (ALA) union chapter chair, said the union has been worried about an outcome like this and continually raised concerns about the lack of an alternative plan. “Management believes that things will be completed and ready to go by the time their lease is up in these other spaces,” she told New York Focus. “But what is your plan B? Are you just gonna leave us hanging?”

While working at the 111 Livingston office before the relocation, two staff attorneys contracted pneumonia and were hospitalized. Three other attorneys were diagnosed with adult-onset asthma while working in the building, including one who also had a second trimester miscarriage. Though none of the health concerns can be directly linked to the mold, some staff still fear returning to work.

“I’m not trying to have another baby, so at least I’ve been through the worst,” said the staff member who reported the miscarriage. “But isn’t that sad? I’m saying, ‘I’ll just get laryngitis or a respiratory infection, it’s not as bad.’

“Health concerns were the main reason that I left,” said Leah Martin, a former criminal defense attorney at Legal Aid. “And there’s no amount of money that they couldn’t pay me to go back to that building.”