Adam Liptak

Adam Liptak is Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent for The New York Times, recognized for his expertise in legal journalism. Liptak began his career at The New York Times as a copyboy after graduating cum laude from Yale University, where he served as an editor of the Yale Daily News and earned a degree in English. He later returned to Yale to earn a J.D. from Yale Law School. Following law school, Liptak worked as a litigation associate at Cahill Gordon & Reindel in New York City, specializing in First Amendment law. He subsequently joined The New York Times Company's legal department, where he spent a decade advising the company’s newspapers, television stations, and digital properties on defamation, privacy, news gathering, and related legal issues, and frequently litigated media and commercial cases.

Liptak joined The New York Times news staff as national legal correspondent, covering Supreme Court nominations, high-profile criminal trials, judicial ethics, and the criminal justice system, including capital punishment. He inaugurated the "Sidebar" column, a recurring feature analyzing legal developments. Liptak began covering the Supreme Court following Linda Greenhouse’s tenure and later became Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent, writing The New York Times newsletter "The Docket."

Liptak’s reporting has been recognized in both journalism and legal circles. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting for "American Exception," a series examining how the American legal system differs from those of other developed nations. He received the Scripps Howard Raymond Clapper Award for Washington Reporting for a series on the Roberts Court, the New York Press Club's John Peter Zenger Award for defending and advancing the cause of a free press, and the Crystal Gavel award for journalistic work. Additional honors include the Burton Awards' Outstanding Journalist in Law Award and election as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Stetson University awarded Liptak an honorary doctor of laws degree, and Hofstra University presented him with its Presidential Medal.

Liptak is the author of the e-book "To Have and Uphold: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage." His journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, The New York Observer, Business Week, and The American Lawyer. He has also published several law review articles on First Amendment topics. Liptak has taught courses on media law and the Supreme Court at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, UCLA School of Law, University of Chicago Law School, University of Southern California Gould School of Law, and Yale Law School. He has served as chairman of the New York City Bar Association's communications and media law committee and as a board member of the Media Law Resource Center. Liptak is widely regarded for his contributions to legal reporting, First Amendment analysis, and media law education.