Floyd Abrams (born July 9, 1936) is an American lawyer. A member of Cahill Gordon & Reindel since 1963 and currently senior counsel, he has argued in 13 cases before the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

. Abrams was co-counsel to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' in the 1971 Pentagon Papers case, and represented Judith Miller in the CIA leak grand jury investigation,

Standard & Poor's S&P Global Ratings (previously Standard & Poor's and informally known as S&P) is an American credit rating agency (CRA) and a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks, bonds, and commodities. S&P is co ...

, and Lorillard Tobacco Company among others. He also represented Senator Mitch McConnell in the Citizens United 2010 Supreme Court case. Two of Abrams' clients had been on death row for crimes, and their convictions were overruled by the Supreme Court.

Early life and education

Abrams was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

on July 9, 1936, the son of Rae (née Eberlin) and Isadore Abrams. He is of Jewish descent and had a bar mitzvah ceremony. His first cousin is Elliot Abrams, President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

's deputy national-security advisor. He earned his undergraduate degree from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in 1956, and after trying to decide between a PhD in

American History The history of the present-day United States began in roughly 15,000 BC with the arrival of Peopling of the Americas, the first people in the Americas. In the late 15th century, European colonization of the Americas, European colonization beg ...

and law, he obtained his

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...

in 1960. While at Cornell, Abrams participated in

Reserve Officers' Training Corps The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC; or ) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. While ROTC graduate officers serve in all branches o ...

and was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

Career

From 1961 to 1963, Abrams clerked for Judge Paul Conway Leahy of the

United States District Court for the District of Delaware The United States District Court for the District of Delaware (in case citations, D. Del.) is the United States district court, Federal district court having jurisdiction over the entire state of Delaware. The Court sits in Wilmington, Delaware, ...

. Abrams joined Cahill Gordon & Reindel in 1963 and became a partner in 1970. He was also a Visiting Lecturer at

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (CLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Columbia University, a Private university, private Ivy League university in New York City. The school was founded in 1858 as the Columbia College Law School. The un ...

from 1981 to 1985. He was the William J. Brennan Jr. visiting Professor at the

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism sch ...

. He created the Floyd Abrams Institute for Freedom of Expression at Yale Law School. Abrams is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His clients have included The McGraw-Hill Companies, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, ''Time Magazine'', ''Business Week'', ''The Nation'', ''Reader's Digest'', Hearst, AIG, and others. He is the subject of the PBS - American Masters documentary ''Floyd Abrams: Speaking Freely'', which was nominated for an Emmy.

Personal life

Abrams lives in

with wife Efrat Surasky, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Together they have a son, television host Dan Abrams; and a daughter, Judge Ronnie Abrams of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. In 2008, Abrams played the role of Judge Hall in the movie ''Nothing but the Truth''.

Recognitions

* Presented with the Chambers and Partners' Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. * Recipient of the Freedom of Speech Award from The Media Institute in 2024. * Honoree and recipient of the Inaugural Floyd Abrams Award by the National Coalition Against Censorship in 2024.

Selected publications

*''Speaking Freely: Trials of the First Amendment'', (

Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheimer and then acqu ...

, 2005) . *''Friend of the Court: On the Front Lines with the First Amendment'', (

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

, 2013) . *''The Soul of the First Amendment'', (

, 2017) and .

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Abrams, Floyd 1936 births Floyd Abrams Living people New York (state) lawyers American legal scholars Jewish American academics Jewish legal scholars American lawyers 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