Support for the road ahead.
People returning home after incarceration often face legal, financial, housing, and employment barriers that can make re-entry harder than it should be. These challenges can affect entire families, especially when a wrongful conviction, civil rights violation, or unresolved legal issue has already caused years of harm.
McEldrew Purtell’s Community Legal Network was built to make serious legal help more accessible to people and families navigating systems that often feel impossible to challenge. If you or your loved one is rebuilding after incarceration, the question is whether experienced legal support can help protect your future and pursue accountability where harm was done.
Reduced-Fee Representation
McEldrew Purtell offers a reduced attorney fee for qualifying individuals and families who hire us through the ex-offender re-entry network. This reduced-fee structure is intended to make serious legal representation more accessible to people and families rebuilding after incarceration. There is no fee for an initial consultation.
Who We Are
McEldrew Purtell is a Philadelphia-based trial law firm that represents individuals and families in catastrophic injury, wrongful death, civil rights, wrongful conviction, and other serious civil cases. The firm’s Community Legal Network focuses on serving families and communities that have often been forced to navigate hospitals, police departments, insurance companies, corporations, prisons, and public systems without meaningful support.
Our attorneys handle high-stakes cases involving civil rights violations, negligent security, medical malpractice, nursing home abuse, workplace injuries, industrial disasters, product liability, toxic exposure, transportation crashes, and wrongful death.
We do not treat re-entry as a public relations issue. We treat it as a legal, family, and community issue that deserves serious resources.
Why Re-Entry Communities Trust Us
We Know the Systems You’re Up Against
We know how courts, prisons, police departments, hospitals, employers, and government agencies can fail people trying to rebuild their lives.
We See the Person, Not the Record
Your past does not define your worth. We listen first, explain your options clearly, and treat your story with the respect it deserves.
We Demand Accountability
When institutions abuse their power, ignore warning signs, or cause preventable harm, we build cases designed to expose the truth and demand accountability.
We Care About What Comes Next
Justice is not only about compensation. It is about helping people move forward with stability, dignity, and a stronger chance at the future they deserve.
McEldrew Purtell stood with me when the system had written me off. They fought to bring the truth to light, and now I have the privilege of working alongside them to help other families who are still searching for justice. For me, this work is personal. I know what it feels like to be unheard, to be forgotten, and to keep fighting anyway. Now I get to use what I lived through to help others find their way home.
Spotlight
Andre “Shakur” Harvey: From Wrongful Conviction to Legal Investigator
McEldrew Purtell represented Andre “Shakur” Harvey, who spent more than 41 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. After his conviction was vacated in 2024, he was released and began a new chapter.
Today, Mr. Harvey uses his lived experience and deep knowledge of the system to support our investigations, outreach, and efforts to free the wrongfully convicted.
Legal Services for Re-Entry Individuals and Families
McEldrew Purtell may be able to help with legal matters involving:
Wrongful Conviction and Post-Conviction Issues
A wrongful conviction can damage an entire family and community. Our team reviews potential PCRA and civil rights matters involving misconduct, hidden evidence, unreliable witnesses, false confessions, ineffective defense work, junk science, and other issues that may have contributed to a wrongful conviction.
Gun Violence & Negligent Security
Re-entry often depends on the ability to work. When unsafe job sites, contractors, property owners, manufacturers, or employers cause catastrophic harm, we investigate what happened and who may be responsible.
Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect
We represent elders and their families when facilities cut staff, ignore bed sores, mishandle medications, allow falls, or turn a blind eye to abuse. We pursue full accountability for pressure-wound deaths, choking deaths, malnutrition, and neglect in long-term care.
Crashes: Trucking, Commercial Vehicles & Rideshare
From tractor-trailers coming through Community neighborhoods to rideshare crashes in the city, we investigate driver fatigue, distracted driving, unsafe fleets, and bad maintenance practices that turn
streets into danger zones. We take on the corporations, not just the driver.
Medical Malpractice and Birth Injury
People returning home and their families may also face medical harm that was ignored or dismissed. We review cases involving failure to diagnose, surgical errors, birth trauma, cerebral palsy, emergency room negligence, anesthesia mistakes, and hospital-acquired infections.
Workplace, Construction, and Industrial Injury
Re-entry often depends on the ability to work. When unsafe job sites, contractors, property owners, manufacturers, or employers cause catastrophic harm, we investigate what happened and who may be responsible.
What to Expect When You Contact Us
When you contact McEldrew Purtell, our team will listen to what happened, ask focused questions, and explain whether the issue appears to fit the types of cases we handle.
We may ask for documents such as court records, prison records, medical records, police reports, incident reports, photographs, employment records, witness information, or correspondence from agencies, insurers, employers, property owners, or institutions. You do not need to have every document before reaching out. A conversation can help identify what may be needed next.
Who Can Contact Us
You may contact us if you are:
- A person seeking review of a potential wrongful conviction or post-conviction issue
- A person returning home after incarceration
- A family member of someone currently or formerly incarcerated
- A re-entry advocate or case manager
- A community organization
- A church or faith leader
- A union representative
- A loved one seeking help after serious injury, death, or possible civil rights violations
Community Reengagement Means More Than Legal Services
Our goal is to be a legal resource that treats people returning home, and the families standing beside them, with clarity, respect, and seriousness.
If you or your loved one is part of the ex-offender re-entry network and needs legal guidance, contact McEldrew Purtell for a free consultation.
We will review the situation, explain whether we may be able to help, and discuss whether reduced-fee representation may apply.
Learn More
Monterrosa Family Confirms $8.5 Million Settlement in Federal Lawsuit Over Fatal Shooting of Sean Monterrosa
Through their attorney, John Coyle of McEldrew Purtell, the family of Sean Monterrosa confirms that the federal lawsuit arising from Sean Monterrosa’s fatal shooting has been settled for $8.5 million. The family requests privacy at this time. In a joint…
Ybor City Tragedy: When Police Pursuits and Premises Design Collide
On Saturday, November 8, 2025, a driver fleeing police crashed into patrons outside Bradley’s on 7th in Tampa’s Ybor City, killing four and injuring at least eleven. Officials say the driver had been racing and evading law enforcement shortly before…
McEldrew Purtell Files PCRA Petition Seeking Release of Michael Gaynor in 1988 Marcus Yates Case
McEldrew Purtell has filed a petition under Pennsylvania’s Post-Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) seeking the release of Michael Gaynor, who has been incarcerated since his 1988 conviction in the tragic shooting death of 5-year-old Marcus Yates.
Family of Amanda Cahill Files Federal Lawsuit After Jail Overdose
McEldrew Purtell has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the family of Amanda Cahill, a 31-year-old mother who died in September 2024 of a suspected fentanyl overdose while incarcerated at the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center (PICC).
Baton Rouge Police Department Strip-Search Class Action: What Victims Should Know (2025 Update)
The Baton Rouge Police Department Systematically violated the rights of citizens by taking them into custody, strip searching, and physically abusing them without justification or legitimate purpose. The officers and supervisors who committed these violations were in a specialized unit…
McEldrew Purtell is currently investigating the New Orleans Terror Attack
In the early hours of New Year’s Eve, tragedy struck when a devastating attack led to unimaginable loss and injury. Many lives were changed forever, and the community is still reeling from the effects. At McEldrew Purtell, we stand with…
