Private NYC special ed school owes $800K in legal fees over sex harass, health violations: suit

Yahoo

09-05-2025

A private special education school on the Upper East Side is accused of skipping out on $800,000 in legal bills to defend against sexual harassment claims and health violations, a new lawsuit claims.
But its founder blames the city's Department of Education for the debt, claiming that any lapse in payments is because of $6 million in funding that the Big Apple owes them.
The International Institute for the Brain, or iBRAIN, a specialty school for children with brain injuries and disorders, hired the elite law firm Pryor Cashman to solve a slew of legal headaches with the city, plus state and federal courts, back in 2023.
While the school has paid the firm roughly $81,000, it still owes a whopping $815,000, the suit claims.
'Despite Pryor Cashman's repeated good faith attempts to obtain payment from iBrain, iBrain has failed and refused to make payment,' reads the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
The firm did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Pryor Cashman's legal work for iBrain took place during 2023 and ranged from advice on what to do about a former worker 'publicly disparaging' the school to helping 'resolve' unspecified health code violations.
iBrain was also represented by Pryor Cashman in a salacious civil lawsuit in state court in 2023, where a former employee claimed that the school was 'extremely filthy and unsanitary' — with dead rats visibly rotting and roaches crawling on students.
iBrain also sued the same 'disgruntled' worker in federal court for libel and 'malicious' copyright infringement, claiming she 'used and exploited copyrighted photographs of iBrain's disabled students as poster-children and pawns for her social media campaign of defamation.'
Both suits settled out of court, according to records and Pryor Cashman's lawsuit.
And when the firm sent iBrain its invoices, the school happily received them and partially paid up, but has been mum since.
iBrain never 'disputed the Invoices at any time,' the suit claims, adding that the firm has demanded the school pay up.
'iBrain has not responded to these demands.'
School founder Patrick Donohue told The Post that while he couldn't comment yet on the suit, he blamed the city's DOE for 'continued and purposeful delays.'
iBrain's students are all 'non-verbal and wheelchair-dependent, many of whom require nursing due to their complex medical conditions,' he said.
'The NYC DOE has a long history of withholding funds for special education students, and they are currently withholding over $6 million in tuition and related service funds for our students for just this school year,' Donohue said.
DOE officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the claim.
'We intend to fulfill any and all of our obligations as soon as the NYC DOE fulfills their legal and financial obligations to the families of iBRAIN,' Donohue said.
The single father — once a finance director for former Gov. George Pataki's winning campaign — founded the school after his newborn daughter suffered brain damage when her baby-nurse brutally attacked her.
According to court papers, iBrain charges 'only a $100 refundable deposit for enrollment,' with parents obtaining funding from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, in addition to public and private funding.
The school now has locations on the Upper East Side, Brooklyn and Washington, DC.
On Monday, the school held its inaugural iBrain Gala at the Central Park Boathouse — intentionally contrasting with the Met Gala — where their students made their way down a red carpet, some with the aid of futuristic exoskeleton devices.