KINGSTON, R.I. – Oct. 15, 2025 – Floyd Abrams, a prominent national attorney who has defended the First Amendment against a myriad of efforts to limit its scope for more than six decades, will deliver the University of Rhode Island’s 2025 Christiane Amanpour Lecture on Monday, Nov. 3 at 4 p.m., in the Hope Room of the Robert J. Higgins ’67 Welcome Center, 45 Upper College Road on the Kingston Campus.

Abrams, a senior counsel in New York-based Cahill Gordon & Reindell LLP’s litigation group, will discuss “How Unique Is The First Amendment?”The lecture, presented free and open to the public by the URI Harrington School of Communication and Media, will also feature a Q&A session that will run approximately 30 minutes, giving attendees the opportunity to pose questions to Abrams.

“Floyd Abrams has been involved in some of the most prominent cases in First Amendment law, I can’t think of a better person to speak with our community, especially our journalism students, about how press freedoms are interpreted in court,” said Daniel S. Hunt, chair of the Harrington School’s journalism and public relations department. “First Amendment cases often set the legal precedent for future interpretations of our constitutional rights. By inviting one of the most well-respected First Amendment attorneys to campus, we are providing our students with an opportunity to learn from Floyd’s first-hand experiences protecting the First Amendment.” 

Abrams’ lecture will also be streamed live on YouTube. Registration is requested through the event’s page. 

Abrams first joined Cahill Gordon & Reindel in 1963 and became partner there in 1969. In 2005, he became a senior counsel at the firm. Described by the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York as “the most significant First Amendment lawyer of our age,” Abrams argued 13 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, representing a wide range of clients about diverse First Amendment-related circumstances. His clients included media corporations, such as The New York Times, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, TIME Magazine, Business Week and The Nation.

Abrams in 2006 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and, nine years later, received the Award of Merit from Yale Law School. Other awards Abrams received include the Ross Essay Award of the American Bar Association, the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism Lifetime Achievement Award, the Walter Cronkite Freedom of Information Award of the Connecticut Foundation for Open Government, the Learned Hand Award of the American Jewish Committee, and the Thurgood Marshall Award of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

Additionally, Abrams will spend time speaking with students taking news media law and ethics classes. 

The Christiane Amanpour Lecture is endowed and named for Amanpour ‘’83, Hon. ‘’95, chief international anchor for CNN and host of its award-winning, flagship global affairs program, “Amanpour,” as well as “Amanpour & Co.” Launched in 2008, the speaker series has attracted well-respected journalists to campus annually – including Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent C.J. Chivers of the New York Times (2011), freelance photographer David Goldman (2011), CNN anchor and senior political correspondent Abby Phillip (2021), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov, and Amanpour herself (2019).