Allison Mahoney, Esq.

Allison Mahoney is the Founder and Managing Attorney at ALM Law. She has over a decade’s worth of experience litigating on behalf of survivors of abuse, and she specializes in representing vulnerable children in civil rights matters.

Allison began her legal career at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, where she was a member of the firm’s pro bono committee and represented survivors of sexual abuse and intimate partner violence from around the world. She was later a prosecutor in New York City and investigated sex crimes, public corruption, and human trafficking rings. For the next several years, Allison worked at Lawyers for Children, Inc. and represented children in foster care in New York City in various family court proceedings. As LFC’s Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Project Attorney, she carried a specialized caseload and served as the in-house legal expert for cases involving those sensitive issues. Allison was most recently the Interim Deputy Director at A Better Childhood, where she investigated child welfare systems across the country, formed partnerships with local organizations and national law firms, and filed class action lawsuits on behalf of foster children, alleging violations of their civil and federal statutory rights.

Today, Allison is a member of The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children; on the Board of Directors at Response, an organization that works with survivors of domestic and sexual abuse in the Roaring Fork Valley in Colorado; on the Board of Directors at YouthZone, a diversion and advocacy program for youth in Colorado; and a member of the New York Cyber Abuse Task Force. Allison served as the Secretary of the New York City Bar Association’s Children & the Law Committee and was the Chair of Fordham University’s School of Law Government and Public Interest Affinity Group. She was also part of a working group to reimagine intimate partner violence services for abusers. The goal of the working group was to change abusers’ behaviors and stop the cycle of trauma.

Bar Admissions

  • Colorado
  • District of Columbia
  • Illinois
  • New York

Court Admissions

  • Eastern District of New York
  • Southern District of New York
  • Northern District of New York
  • District of Colorado
  • Supreme Court of the United States

Education

  • Fordham Law School, J.D., 2011, graduated cum laude
  • Marquette University, B.S. in Finance & B.A. in English, 2006, graduated magna cum laude

Representative Matters

  • Initiated and led multiple investigations into child welfare systems, which resulted in federal lawsuits.
  • Represented class of plaintiff children in foster care in a lawsuit against a state child welfare agency and the governor in a federal lawsuit alleging violations of their constitutional and federal statutory rights. The federal court ultimately certified portions of the class in this matter.
  • Oversaw the drafting of a successful appeal to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
  • Successfully argued an appeal on behalf of a child in foster care before New York’s Appellate Division, First Department.
  • Successfully obtained a permanent protection order on behalf of child in Colorado, who was a victim of sexual abuse. 
  • Successfully obtained protection orders in New York on behalf of victims of sexual abuse.
  • Negotiated a six-figure settlement on behalf of victim of sexual assault. 
  • Negotiated a settlement of over half-a-million dollars on behalf of a victim of image-based sexual abuse.