Floyd Abrams
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Floyd Abrams | |
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![]() Floyd Abrams in 2006. | |
Born | |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Cornell University (BA) Yale Law School (JD) |
Occupation | Attorney |
Employer | Cahill Gordon & Reindel |
Known for | Several First Amendment cases |
Spouse(s) | Efrat Surasky (m. 1963) |
Children | Dan Abrams Ronnie Abrams |
Family | Elliott Abrams (cousin) |
Floyd Abrams (born July 9, 1936) is an American attorney at Cahill Gordon & Reindel. He is an expert on constitutional law, and has argued 13 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.
Abrams represented The New York Times in 1971 during the Pentagon Papers case, Judith Miller in the CIA leak grand jury investigation, Standard & Poor's and Lorillard Tobacco Company. He argued for Citizens United during the 2010 Supreme Court case.[1]
In 2008 he played the pivotal role of Judge Hall in the movie Nothing but the Truth (2008 American film).
He is the William J. Brennan Jr. visiting Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Abrams joined Cahill Gordon & Reindel in 1963 and became a partner in 1970.
In August 2021, Abrams was named to the advisory board of American facial recognition company Clearview AI as of counsel.[2]
Personal[]
Abrams was born in New York City on July 9, 1936, the son of Rae (née Eberlin) and Isadore Abrams.[3] He is of Jewish descent.[4] His first cousin is Elliot Abrams, President George W. Bush's deputy national-security advisor.[5] He earned his undergraduate degree from Cornell University in 1956, and after trying to decide between a PhD in American History and law, he decided to obtain his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1960.[6] He lives in New York City with wife Efrat Surasky.[7] Together they have a son, Dan Abrams of ABC, as well as the host of Live PD and Court Cam, and a daughter, Judge Ronnie Abrams of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He is a member of the Constitution Project's Liberty and Security Committee[8] and a patron of the Media Legal Defence Initiative.
Early career and legal scholarship[]
From 1961 to 1963, Abrams clerked for Judge Paul Conway Leahy of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.[9] He was also a Visiting Lecturer at Columbia Law School from 1981 to 1985.[10]
Selected writings[]
- Speaking Freely: Trials of the First Amendment, (Viking Press, 2005) ISBN 978-0-670-03375-1.
- Friend of the Court: On the Front Lines with the First Amendment, (Yale University Press, 2013) ISBN 978-0300190878.
- The Soul of the First Amendment, (Yale University Press, 2017) ISBN 978-0300190885.
See also[]
References[]
- ^ "Facial Recognition Start-Up Mounts a First Amendment Defense in Privacy Suits". The New York Times. 11 August 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
- ^ "Clearview AI Announces Formation of Advisory Board" (Press release). New York: Business Wire. The LAKPR Group Inc. 2021-08-18. Retrieved 2021-08-26.
- ^ "Abrams, Floyd 1936–". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved March 26, 2021.
- ^ Blum, Howard (July 7, 2005). "Q and A With Floyd Abrams". The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles.
Does your heritage as a Jew give you a particular affinity as a lawyer for the First Amendment, which protects freedom of religion, freedom of speech and establishes the separation of church and state?
- ^ Dana, Rebecca (December 6, 2016). "The Abrams Family". The New York Observer.
- ^ "Floyd Abrams – first amendment litigator".
- ^ "Abrams, Floyd 1936–". Contemporary Authors. Cengage. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
- ^ "Members". constitutionproject.com. Archived from the original on April 27, 2009. Retrieved 2013-12-22.
- ^ "Floyd Abrams delivers annual Salant Lecture". Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
- ^ "Floyd Abrams, Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP: Profile & Biography". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
External links[]
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Floyd Abrams on Nightline[dead link] at Google Videos
- Media file of Floyd Abrams talking about Speaking Freely
- Abrams is lawyer for S&P
- A film clip "The Open Mind - Taking the Fifth (1987)" is available at the Internet Archive
- A film clip "The Open Mind - Again, Rights in Conflict (1990)" is available at the Internet Archive
- 1936 births
- Living people
- New York (state) lawyers
- American legal scholars
- Jewish American attorneys
- Columbia Law School faculty
- Yale Law School faculty
- Cornell University alumni
- Yale Law School alumni
- Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- People associated with Cahill Gordon & Reindel
- 21st-century American Jews