¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½

PHILADELPHIA, June 1, 2004 — The Board of Directors of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½) announces, with the deepest satisfaction, the appointment of David A. French as ¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½'s president. David will be behind his desk at ¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½'s office in Philadelphia by June 28, 2004. Alan Charles Kors, ¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½'s chairman, said, "This is an ideal pairing of an individual and an organization, at a time of unprecedented opportunity."

David A. French, a native Kentuckian, graduated with honors from Harvard Law School, was a lecturer at Cornell Law School, and has been a partner at Greenebaum, Doll & McDonald, a 200-lawyer firm with offices in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. For the past four years, he has served as religious freedom counsel for the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, has been the most active member of ¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½'s Legal Network, and has devoted himself pro bono to the civil liberties of college students and professors.

He was the lead attorney both in ¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½'s first major public case, a successful defense of freedom of association at Tufts University, and in ¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½'s recent historic victory in federal court against the unconstitutional speech code at Shippensburg University. He is the author of ¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½'s Guide to Religious Liberty on Campus. He is also the coauthor, with Harvey A. Silverglate, ¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½'s vice-chairman, and Greg Lukianoff, ¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½'s director of legal and public advocacy, of ¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½'s forthcoming Guide to Free Speech on Campus.

"FIREhas worked wonderfully with David from the start," Kors noted. "David is a nonpartisan defender of the individual rights of all students and faculty," Kors added, "with an exemplary dedication to liberty, free speech, legal equality, and rights of conscience not as means to advance this or that particular agenda, but as ways of being human. I am delighted that he will be ¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½'s first president under our expanded Board of Directors. He will bring us yet greater success and growth."

Silverglate observed, "I have had the pleasure and privilege of working with David on some of ¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½'s most important cases involving free speech, free thought, and fair procedure. He has the rare gift of combining legal, ethical, moral, and practical analysis seamlessly, and he is truly expert in shaping honest arguments and strategies in the cause of liberty. David's skill and devotion promise wonderful things for the next stage of ¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½'s efforts to change the campus culture on behalf of individual rights, liberty, and dignity."

David A. French, 35, is married to Nancy French. They have two children, Camille, 5, and Austin, 3.

CONTACT:
Alan Charles Kors, Chairman of the Board of Directors, ¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½: 215-717-3473; ack@thefire.org
Harvey A. Silverglate, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors, ¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½: 617-661-9156;
has@thefire.org
David A. French: 215-717-3473; David.French@thefire.org