The First Amendment Coalition today welcomed David Loy as its legal director.
Loy is a veteran civil liberties litigator who has defended the First Amendment rights of reporters, photographers, bloggers, students, teachers, activists, protesters, musicians, Marines, and motorcycle club members. He has fought for public disclosure and governmental transparency for over 20 years. He joins FAC from the ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties, where he served as legal director for nearly 16 years, overseeing a diverse docket of civil rights cases.
Loy will direct FAC’s strategic litigation program, enforcing California and federal open-government laws and defending First Amendment protections. And he will work with other senior staff to champion legislative and policy reforms to strengthen press freedom, protest rights and access to public meetings and information. He will manage two legal fellows and contribute to FAC’s free Legal Hotline.
“David’s deep experience, keen legal mind and passion for the First Amendment make him ideally suited to oversee FAC’s growing legal work—and to expand that work to meet new threats,” said FAC Executive Director David Snyder. “We could not ask for a colleague better prepared to lead FAC’s strategic litigation program into the future. We are overjoyed to begin working with him.”
Earlier in his career, Loy worked as a staff attorney with the Office of the Appellate Defender in New York City, a public defender in Spokane, Washington, and a staff attorney with the Center for Justice in Spokane.
He studied history and Chinese language at Brown University, where he was photo editor of the Brown Daily Herald. After college, he worked for a law firm in San Francisco, taught English in China, and served as the legal assistant for a Chicago legal services office. He graduated from Northwestern University School of Law in 1994 and clerked for U.S. Circuit Judge Dolores K. Sloviter of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. David is an active member of the California and New York bars, with inactive status in Washington and Illinois.
He lives in San Diego. Follow him on Twitter.