David McCraw serves as the top newsroom lawyer for The New York Times during the most turbulent era for journalism in generations.   He is the author of the book, Truth in Our Times: Inside the Fight for Press Freedom in the Age of Alternative Facts (St. Martin’s 2019), a first-person account of the legal battles that helped shape The Times’s coverage of Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein, national security, and the rise of political partisanship in America.  Mr. McCraw has been at The Times for 19 years and currently holds the position of deputy general counsel. 

In addition to advising the newsroom on libel and other legal issues, he is one of the nation’s most prolific litigators of Freedom of Information cases, having brought multiple suits against the federal government over the past decade seeking the release of secret information. He also oversees international security for Times journalists and has worked as the crisis response manager when reporters and photographers have been kidnapped or detained abroad.

He is a visiting lecturer at Harvard Law School and an adjunct professor at the NYU Law School.  He previously was deputy general counsel at the New York Daily News.

Sponsored by Bob Valentine & Steve Bolton