Tim O’Brien is an attorney and an award winning journalist whose achievements include covering the U.S. Supreme Court for ABC News for more than twenty-two years. He is a recognized expert on the Court, its Justices and on the development of a generation of constitutional law.
O’Brien’s reporting has received the highest accolades of both the legal and journalism professions. The National Academy of Arts and Sciences awarded Mr. O’Brien an Emmy for his contributions to CNN’s coverage of the September 11thterrorism attacks. His television documentaries on the criminal justice system received the American Bar Association’s highest award (The Silver Gavel Award) as well as a Columbia-DuPont Award for Excellence in journalism. He also received a Columbia-DuPont Award for Human Rights Reporting for “Escape From Justice—Nazi War Criminals in America,” an ABC News documentary.
O’Brien’s reporting on the death penalty and alternative dispute resolution have also been recognized by the American Bar Association for journalism excellence. He is currently a contributing correspondent to the PBS Broadcast, “Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.” His opinions on issues ranging from the death penalty to broadcast coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court have appeared on the Op Ed pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post and other major newspapers around the U.S.
O’Brien is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Bar of the Supreme Court of the U.S. Active in the Washington legal community, he is an elected member of the American Law Institute, a former Director of the American Judicature Society and a current board member of the National Legal Center for the Public Interest.
O’Brien is a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and has held similar positions at Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans (2003, 2005), St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami (2001) and Hofstra University School of Law, Hempstead, NY. (2000)
He is a “Distinguished Alumnus” of Michigan State University and a member of the Board of Visitors of the Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans. A frequent lecturer on the Supreme Court and legal issues generally, he was the keynote speaker at the D.C. Judicial Circuit Conference for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia meeting at Williamsburg, Virginia in 2002. In 2009, he was the keynote speaker for annual meetings of the state bar associations of Michigan and Kentucky.
April 2013 DC Luncheon with Tim O'Brien