William “Bill” Newman 68’ is a successful lawyer who has spent his career working for social justice. On Friday, February 8 from 6:45-7:45 p.m, Mr. Newman will be speaking in the Faculty Room. He will be reading excerpts from his latest book, Life on the Co-op Plan, a collection of essays he has written over the past 45 years about politics, his family and significant court cases.

Bill Newman joined the school as a prep in 1964. During his four years at Hotchkiss, he  was the co-editor of a literary magazine and a writer for the Mischianza. After graduating from Hotchkiss, he attended Antioch College in Ohio. While at college, Mr. Newman worked for the Vera Institute of Justice, a criminal justice reform organization. Mr. Newman earned his J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in 1976 and only a year later, he became a partner at the law firm Lesser Newman Aleo & Nasser in Massachusetts. Mr. Newman quickly became a successful civil rights and civil liberties lawyer. Some major accomplishments in his career include freeing a man from death row in Georgia and contributing to the first custody case involving gay parents decided by Massachusetts’s highest court. Mr. Newman is also co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrant Protection Project of Western Massachusetts (IPP).

Mr. Newman has won many awards, including the Clarence Darrow Award, given to him in 2017 for his work on the death row case mentioned previously. His firm has been named several times by U.S. News and World Report as one of the “Best Law Firms in America.”

Mr. Newman is also the author of two books and host of the podcast “Civil Liberties Minute” and The Bill Newman Show” on WHMP 1400 AM. After reading excerpts from his book, Mr. Newman will be hosting a Q&A.