The New Press recently elected Frederick A.O. (“Fritz”) Schwarz Jr. to its board of directors. Currently serving as chief counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, Schwarz was for many decades a litigation partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he remains senior counsel. Highlights from his illustrious career include serving as chief counsel to the Church Committee (formally known as the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Activities with Respect to Intelligence Activities), New York City corporation counsel under Mayor Edward Koch, chair of the New York City Charter Revision Commission and of the New York City Campaign Finance Board, and most recently, heading up New York City’s Quadrennial Advisory Commission.

Schwarz has chaired the boards of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Vera Institute of Justice, the Atlantic Philanthropies, and the Fund for the City of New York. He has also been awarded the New York State Bar Association’s Gold Medal for distinguished service in the law and the Ridenhour Courage Prize “in recognition of his lifelong commitment to strengthening democracy and the rule of law.”

Schwarz has published two books with The New Press, Democracy in the Dark: The Seduction of Government Secrecy and Unchecked and Unbalanced: Presidential Power in a Time of Terror (co-authored with fellow New Press board member Aziz Huq), and we are delighted to have him join us in this new capacity.