Floyd Abrams

Floyd Abrams keynotes address issues surrounding the first amendment of the American Constitution. He looks at how laws stemming from this right intersect with modern culture, most notably the media.

Abrams is a famous advocate and scholar of the first amendment. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Cornell University in 1956 before earning his Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School in 1960. After his schooling, Abrams began working for the distinguished law firm, Cahill Gordon & Reindel, where he would later become a partner.

In terms of casework, Abrams is probably most well known for successfully defending The New York Times in the precedent-setting New York Times Co. v. United States trial. The effect of this case was that the Nixon Adminstration was forced, by the United States Supreme Court, to relinquish their ban on the publication of thousands of pages of government documents relating to the Vietnam War. Floyd Abrams keynotes point to cases such as this to demonstrate the implications the first amendment has for society at large.