Abrams, Floyd 1936–

PERSONAL: Born July 9, 1936, in New York, NY; son of Isidore and Rae (Eberlin); married Efrat Surasky, December 25, 1963; children: Daniel, Ronnie. Education: Cornell University, B.A., 1956; Yale University, LL.B., 1960.

ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY. Office—Cahill Gordon and Reindel LLP, 80 Pine St., 17th Fl., New York, NY, 10005-1790. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, research assistant in department of politics, 1960–61; U.S. District Court, Wilmington, DE, clerk to Paul Leahy, 1961–63; admitted to the Bar of New York State, 1961; Cahill, Gordon & Reindel (law firm), New York, NY, associate, 1963–70, partner, 1970–. Yale University, New Haven, CT, visiting lecturer, 1974–80 and 1986–89; Columbia University, New York, NY, visiting lecturer, 1981–85, William J. Brennan, Jr., visiting professor in Graduate School of Journalism, 1993. Member of First Amendment advisory council, The Media Institute, 2004.

MEMBER: American Bar Association (chair of rights of expression committee, individual rights section, 1976–79, Ross essay prize, chair of freedom of speech and press committee, litigation section, 1977–79, forum committee, 1979–80, amicus curiae committee, 1980–82), Bar Association of the City of New York (member of state legal committee, 1965–67, chair of communications committee, 1992–94).

AWARDS, HONORS: Anvil of Freedom award, Estlow International Center for Journalism and New Media, 2003–04; Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize, Anti-Defamation League, 2003.

WRITINGS:

Shield Law Protection for the Press (sound recording; broadcast on National Public Radio, 1978), Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (Santa Barbara, CA), 1982.

(With Richard Willard) National Security and the First Amendment (debate transcript), American Bar Association (Chicago, IL), 1984.

(With Diane Orentlicher) Kampuchea, after the Worst: A Report on Current Violations of Human Rights, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (New York, NY), 1985.

Speaking Freely: Trials of the First Amendment, Viking (New York, NY), 2005.

Member of board of editors, New York Law Journal, 1983–, and Legal Times, 1989.

SIDELIGHTS: Floyd Abrams earned his law degree from Yale University in 1960, then went on to serve as a law clerk for Paul Leahy in the U.S. District Court of Wilmington, Delaware. In 1963, he joined the law practice of Cahill, Gordon & Reindel in New York City and was named a partner in the firm in 1970. Abrams specializes in First Amendment rights and has served as chair and as a member of several committees within the American Bar Association. Among his many achievements, he acted as co-counsel for the New York Times in the 1971 "Pentagon Papers" case, which involved the publication of top-secret documents detailing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. In addition, he successfully defended the National Broad-casting Company, Inc. (NBC) in a libel action brought against it by performer Wayne Newton, and participated in a variety of other cases dealing with magazines, book publishers, and film and television companies, some of which have gone to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2003, Abrams was awarded the Anti-Defamation League's Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize. Abraham H. Foxman, in a report posted on ADL.org, remarked that "Abrams is a tireless defender of the First Amendment…. His record shows a deep-seated commitment to the ideals of freedom that the Framers envisioned and intimate knowledge of the importance the rights detailed in the First Amendment have to the survival of a healthy democracy." Abrams himself, quoted by a contributor to Broadcasting, stated: "I do care a lot about the First Amendment and about the rights of journalists to report and the essentiality of keeping the government out of the picture." He continued: "The uniqueness of this country is brought about in large part by the uniqueness of having a written, legally enforced protection against governmental entry into the … control of what journalists say, what they think, what they do."

Abrams has written several volumes about the First Amendment and how it fits in with the other concerns of the country, such as national security and human rights. In Speaking Freely: Trials of the First Amendment, published in 2005, Abrams provides a thorough discussion of the previous fifty years of First Amendment litigation, focusing in particular on nine cases that were important both to his own career and to the way free speech is interpreted and practiced in the United States. The cases reviewed include the Pentagon Papers, which marked Abrams's first appearance in front of the U.S. Supreme Court; McConnell vs. the Federal Election Commission, a trial concerning political campaign regulation; and the Brooklyn Museum case, which involved the city's threat to withdraw funding for the museum due to an exhibit they found in poor taste. Alec Foege, in a review for the Recorder, remarked that "the main flaw of Speaking Freely is that the outcome of each of Abrams' battles rarely matches the drama of the fight." Abrams closes the book by comparing American law to that of England, Europe, and the world as a whole. A contributor for Kirkus Reviews remarked that "Abrams's … approach is pitched at a higher level than much that passes for today's commentary on current events." He concluded that the book is comprised of "complex yet lucidly conveyed points of constitutional interpretation." In a review for Publishers Weekly, a contributor wrote that the author "conveys the nuance of constitutional law, the grappling for incremental advances in precedent, the interplay between the needs of his clients and the larger cause of free speech." Robert Corn-Revere, in a review for Legal Times, remarked of Abrams's effort: "Written for an intelligent lay audience and not necessarily for free speech specialists or other lawyers, the book provides a very readable account of some of Abrams' most famous First Amendment cases." He added that "it is a book of ideas, outlining the importance of free expression to the democratic scheme and illustrating the challenges involved in preserving it."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

America's Intelligence Wire, July 6, 2005, "News Conference on CIA Leak Investigation."

Bond Buyer, March 30, 2005, Lynn Hume, "Can Raters Be Regulated?: Lawyer, Cases Cite First Amendment Protection," p. 1.

Broadcasting, October 24, 1983, "The First Amendment and Its Favorite Son," p. 95.

Chicago Tribune, July 17, 2005, Stevenson Swanson, "Celebrated First Amendment Attorney Continues Fight for Free Press."

Electronic Media, March 15, 1999, Jon Lafayette, "Libel Expert Feels a Chill: 'Tailwind' Lawyer Sees Media Antagonism on the Rise," interview with Floyd Abrams, p. 27.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2005, review of Speaking Freely: Trials of the First Amendment, p. 157.

Legal Times, May 2, 2005, Robert Corn-Revere, "Championing the First Amendment," review of Speaking Freely.

National Law Journal, July 25, 2005, Pierce O'Donnell, review of Speaking Freely.

Publishers Weekly, February 14, 2005, review of Speaking Freely, p. 65.

Recorder, June 17, 2005, Alec Foege, "Speech, Speakers, and the Lawyer Who Backs Them," review of Speaking Freely.

ONLINE

Anti-Defamation League Web site, http://www.adl.org/ (November 7, 2003), "Renowned Attorney, Floyd Abrams, Honored with ADL Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize."

Columbia University School of Journalism Web site, http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/ (October 25, 2005), "Floyd Abrams."