She asked to limit court exposure - her employer told her to stay seven hours
The Legal Aid Society - which describes itself as the oldest and largest provider of legal services to low-income New Yorkers - is being sued by one of its own social workers over how it handled her disability accommodation request.
Marissa Kubicki, a forensic social worker in the Bronx Parole Revocation Defense Unit, filed a putative class action on May 11, 2026 in the Southern District of New York. The complaint names the organization, its Chief Human Resources Officer Connie Park, a senior employee relations specialist, and three supervisors. It alleges they denied her disability accommodation request and required her to sit in court for up to seven hours a day on coverage days while she was undergoing immunosuppressive treatment.
Kubicki has ankylosing spondylitis, a chronic autoimmune condition. According to the filing, she had worked under an approved accommodation - three remote days, two in-office days a week - and went to court when an attorney, client, or hearing actually needed her. The complaint says she started immunosuppressive treatment in October 2025, which made unnecessary courthouse exposure medically risky.
The shift Kubicki challenges came after she sought to amend her accommodation. The complaint states she submitted updated documentation on November 24, 2025, and a comprehensive amended request on December 9, 2025. What began in August 2025 as a one-hour court-presence instruction directed at two Bronx social workers became, the filing alleges, an expectation applied only to Kubicki that she remain in court for as long as seven hours a day and confer with two supervisors before leaving. Kubicki alleges the employer used the interactive process to expand her job duties rather than evaluate whether she could cover court from the office across the street.
While the request was pending, the complaint says, no interim accommodation was put in place. Kubicki alleges she fell ill twice in December 2025 - a stomach virus on or about December 3, and a week-long upper respiratory infection on or about December 22 - and that the second illness forced her to pause immunosuppressive treatment. She says her health has deteriorated significantly since. According to the filing, she now uses a wheelchair, is largely bedbound, and cannot tolerate screens. She remains employed by The Legal Aid Society on medical leave.
The complaint also describes a January 28, 2026 court appearance Kubicki was directed to make. According to the filing, the client she was sent to meet said, in sum and substance, "I'm shocked you would pull me out of my cell to talk about this." Kubicki argues the in-person requirement was not tied to any client need.
The case names individual HR and supervisory defendants under the New York City Human Rights Law, which permits personal liability. Park is alleged to have participated in the January 20, 2026 denial meeting and reaffirmed the seven-hour expectation. The complaint alleges that Laura Walsh, a senior employee relations specialist, administered the process and held the line on extended courthouse presence. Two social work supervisors and the director of social work for the criminal defense practice are named on similar grounds.
Kubicki pleads ten causes of action under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the NYCHRL, including failure to accommodate, retaliation, interference and intimidation, medical inquiry violations, and failure to engage in a cooperative dialogue. The filing seeks to certify four classes covering Legal Aid employees in New York City who, since May 11, 2023, had disability-based requests denied or partially denied, faced job-duty changes within 75 days of asking for accommodation, waited more than 45 days for a written determination, or were asked for new medical records on already-documented conditions. The complaint also alleges the organization routed parts of the accommodation process through a third-party administrator, Reliance Matrix, on its behalf.
For HR leaders, the case is a map of where accommodation processes tend to break. Interim relief while a request is pending. The way essential functions get described - and re-described - once an employee asks for protection. The point at which repeated medical-information requests cross from due diligence into a problem. And the personal exposure HR staff can face under city law for the calls they make on individual files.
The complaint notes that The Legal Aid Society runs its own Government Benefits and Disability Advocacy Project and has brought class-action litigation to secure accommodations for people accessing public benefits. Kubicki argues the organization held its own workforce to a lower standard.
The allegations have not been tested in court. The Legal Aid Society has not yet filed a response. No court has ruled on the merits or on class certification.
