Barbara Helen Fried () (born 1951) is an American lawyer and

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

Stanford Law School Stanford Law School (Stanford Law or SLS) is the law school of Stanford University, a private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world. Stanford La ...

. She is also the mother of

Sam Bankman-Fried Samuel Benjamin Bankman-Fried (born March 6, 1992), also known by the initialism SBF, is an American suspected fraudster, entrepreneur, investor, and former billionaire. Bankman-Fried was the founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX ...

, who is an

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...

graduate,

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

, and convicted

felon A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resu ...

Education

She graduated from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree ''

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

'' in English and American Literature in 1977 and an

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

degree in literature in 1980, as well as a J.D. degree magna cum laude in 1983 from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

. Fried served from 1983 to 1984 as a judicial

law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...

under J. Edward Lumbard,

Senior Judge Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at least ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory comprises the states of Connecticut, New York and Vermont. The court has appellate juri ...

Career

Fried joined the Stanford Law School Faculty as a tenure-track professor in 1987 after working as an

associate attorney An associate attorney is a lawyer and an employee of a law firm who does not hold an ownership interest as a partner. Types Practicing attorney An associate may be a junior or senior attorney, but normally does not hold an ownership interest in t ...

at the law firm

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP (known as Paul, Weiss) is an American multinational law firm headquartered on Sixth Avenue in New York City. By profits per equity partner, it is the fifth most profitable law firm in the world. ...

from 1984 to 1987. She has investigated such topics as

contractualism Contractualism is a term in philosophy which refers either to a family of political theories in the social contract tradition (when used in this sense, the term is an umbrella term for all social contract theories that include contractarianism), o ...

libertarianism Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...

, and

utilitarianism In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals. Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different charact ...

, and is considered an expert on legal ethics. Fried has written about

effective altruism Effective altruism is a philosophical and social movement that advocates "using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis". People who pursue the goals of effective altruism, c ...

and moral philosopher

Peter Singer Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher, currently the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He specialises in applied ethics and approaches ethical issues from a secular, ...

. She has offered critiques on philosopher

Robert Nozick Robert Nozick (; November 16, 1938 – January 23, 2002) was an American philosopher. He held the Joseph Pellegrino University Professorship at Harvard University,

's theory of

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

and psychologist

John Money John William Money (8 July 1921 – 7 July 2006) was a New Zealand psychologist, sexologist and author known for his research into sexual identity and Sex determination and differentiation (human), biology of gender. He was one of the first ...

's work on "fetally androgenized girls." Her academic work centers on a branch of ethics known as

consequentialism In ethical philosophy, consequentialism is a class of normative, teleological ethical theories that holds that the consequences of one's conduct are the ultimate basis for judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct. Thus, from a ...

, or the idea that the results of our actions are more important than abstract notions of right and wrong. Fried is an affiliate of the Stanford Center on Poverty & Inequality. Fried retired from teaching in late 2022, which she said was a "long-planned" decision.

Activism

Fried is a co-founder of the political fundraising organization

Mind the Gap "Mind the gap" () or sometimes "watch the gap" is an audible or visual warning phrase issued to rail passengers to take caution while crossing the horizontal, and in some cases vertical, spatial gap between the train door and the station ...

, which advocates support for

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

candidates and funds get-out-the-vote groups. The organization, described by ''Vox'' in January 2020 as "Silicon Valley's secretive donor group", advises high-profile tech donors, including former

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

CEO

Eric Schmidt Eric Emerson Schmidt (born April 27, 1955) is an American businessman and software engineer known for being the CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011, executive chairman of Google from 2011 to 2015, executive chairman of Alphabet Inc. from 2015 to 20 ...

and

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...

co-founder

Reid Hoffman Reid Garrett Hoffman (born August 5, 1967) is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author. Hoffman was the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily for prof ...

, on where to direct campaign contributions. In November 2022, Fried resigned from her chairwoman position with Mind the Gap.

Personal life

Fried's partner is Stanford Law School professor Joseph Bankman, whom she met in 1988 while teaching at Stanford. The couple did not marry because they felt it was unfair to gay couples who could not legally marry. She is the mother of

, the convicted founder and former CEO of now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, and his younger brother, Gabe. Fried's sister Linda P. Fried is the Dean of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Fried and Joseph Bankman were sued by the team overseeing the FTX bankruptcy in September 2023. The lawsuit alleges they unjustly enriched themselves, receiving a $10million cash gift and a $16.4million beachfront property in The Bahamas.

Works

Academic work

* ''The Progressive Assault on Laissez Faire: Robert Hale and the First Law and Economics Movement'' (2001) * "Left-Libertarianism, Once More: a Rejoinder to Vallentyne, Steiner and Otsuka" (2005) * ''Can Contractualism Save Us from Aggregation?'' (2012) * "The Holmesian Bad Man Flubs His Entrance" (2012) * "What Does Matter? The Case for Killing the Trolley Problem (Or Letting It Die)" (2012) * "Beyond Blame" (2013) * "But Seriously, Folks, What Do People Really Want?" (2013) * "Emotional Empathy Is Not the Culprit" (2014) * "Brief of Interested Law Professors as Amici Curiae Supporting Respondent in Direct Marketing Association v. Brohl" (2014) * "Facing Up To Risk" (2019) * "Anxiety Psychoeducation for Law Students: A Pilot Program" (2019) * ''Facing Up to Scarcity: The Logic and Limits of Nonconsequentialist Thought'' (2020)

Short stories

* "A Note to A. A. Milne (on the occasion of my mother's 88th birthday)" * "The Days are Gods" * "Really" ''Word Riot'' * "House of Pies" (2011, semi-finalist in New Millennium Writings' 2011 Fiction contest) * "Song of Longing" and "Elegy for Daniel" (2012) * "The Half-Life of Nat Glickstein" (2013), ''Subtropics'', Issue 15 (2013 Winter), * "It Goes Without Saying" (2013) ''Bellevue Literary Review'' (Spring 2013, finalist in BLR's 2013 Fiction contest; nominated for Pushcart Prize) * "A Betting Man" (2014, top 25 in Glimmertrain's 2014 Very Short Fiction contest; long listed in Fish Publishing's 2014-15 Short Story Contest) * "The History of Ideas" (2014) * "What Makes That a Joke?" (2014) * "After Henry" (2017) * "What Remains" (2017, Winner of Fish Publishing's 2017 International Short Memoir Contest)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fried, Barbara 1951 births 20th-century American academics 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American philosophers 20th-century American women academics 20th-century American women lawyers 21st-century American academics 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American philosophers 21st-century American women academics 21st-century American women lawyers American ethicists 21st-century American Jews American legal scholars American political fundraisers American women legal scholars Consequentialists Harvard College alumni Harvard Law School alumni Living people People from Stanford, California Stanford Law School faculty