Dentons’ Michael Bamberger receives New York Law Journal’s Lifetime Achievement Award

Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, announces today that Michael Bamberger received the New York Law Journal’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Bamberger, who is based in New York, is widely regarded as one of the nation’s leading First Amendment authorities.

The Lifetime Achievement Award honors those who have made an impact on the legal community and the practice of law over an entire career. With more than 40 years of experience, Bamberger has dedicated his career to the importance of free speech and has a broad background in constitutional law, intellectual property, media law, corporate law, securities law and business law. He has defended publishers in defamation actions; has counseled publishers and other media clients in their review of potentially defamatory and infringing material; and has published widely in the field.

Bamberger has defended clients on the grounds of freedom of speech and the press since 1977, when he was named general counsel of the Media Coalition, which defends the First Amendment rights of businesses that publish, produce and distribute books, periodicals, movies, videos, recordings and video games. His career includes more than 100 First Amendment cases before trial and appellate courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States. Bamberger has represented more than 40 bookstores in two dozen lawsuits challenging censorship laws. His best known case is American Booksellers v. Hudnut (1985), in which the federal district court in Indianapolis, the Seventh Circuit and the Supreme Court all struck down the MacKinnon/Dworkin “civil rights” anti-pornography law.

A tireless volunteer, Bamberger has provided pro bono legal service to nonprofits such as the Center for Jewish History and the Leo Baeck Institute. For more than 25 years, he has served as pro bono general counsel of the Tourette Association of America. As a result of his work, Bamberger was named the inaugural honoree of the American Booksellers Association's Joyce Meskis Free Speech Award, which honors those "who have provided extraordinary service in defense of the First Amendment rights of booksellers and their customers," as well as awards from the Freedom to Read Foundation of the American Library Association and the Book Industry Study Group.

Bamberger is also a scholar of limited liability companies and partnerships, and has taught the subject at both Cardozo Law School and the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. He has been active on committees of the American, New York State, NY City and NY County bar associations, including serving as chair of the ABA committees on technology and intellectual property and on security interest and intellectual property, and the NY City Bar committee on civil rights.