Susan N. Herman | |
|---|---|
 Herman in 2011 | |
| President of the American Civil Liberties Union | |
| In office October 2008 – January 31, 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Nadine Strossen |
| Succeeded by | Deborah Archer |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1947 (age 76–77) Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Children | 1 |
| Education | Barnard College (BA) New York University (JD) |
| Occupation | Law professor |
Susan N. Herman (born 1947) is an American legal scholar who served as president of the American Civil Liberties Union from October 2008 to January 2021.[1][2] Herman has taught at Brooklyn Law School since 1980.[3][4]
Herman was born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island. Herman earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from Barnard College in 1968 and a Juris Doctor from the New York University School of Law, where she was a note and comment editor for the New York University Law Review.[5][6]
Herman served as pro se law clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She was a staff attorney and later associate director for Prisoners' Legal Services of New York.[5]
Herman teaches constitutional law and criminal procedure, seminars on law and literature, and terrorism and civil liberties,[7] at Brooklyn Law School where she is the inaugural Ruth Bader Ginsburg Professor of Law.[8]
She began working for the ACLU as an intern in law school.[1] When she was elected president, Herman was the organization's general counsel and had served on its board for 20 years.[1][3]
Herman's book Taking Liberties: the War on Terror and the Erosion of American Democracy was published by Oxford University Press in October 2011,[9] and won the 2012 Chicago-Kent College of Law/Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize.[10]
Herman has appeared as a guest on NPR, PBS, C-SPAN, NBC News, and MSNBC. She has written opinion columns for The New York Times, Time, Newsday, and HuffPost.[11][12][13][14]
In 2019, Herman was named to Crain's New York Business biennial list of the "Most Powerful Women in New York".[15]
Herman is married to Paul Gangsei, a law partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. They have one daughter.[16]
