Steven Brill (law writer)
Steven Brill (born August 22, 1950 in Queens, New York)[1] is the founder of CourtTV and American Lawyer magazine. He also founded the failed Verified Identity Pass, Inc.,[2] the New York-based company that operated the Clear airport security fast-pass.[3] The service abruptly shut down June 23, 2009, without any notice to the company's 260,000 paid customers. Brill is the creator of Brill's Content, a now-defunct magazine with a critical eye to the media.[4] He also launched Contentville.com, which was to be a clearinghouse for the buying and selling of web text, news, and info of all sorts. The Contentville.com concept crashed with the dot-coms in 2001. For a time he was a columnist for Newsweek. His most recent venture is Journalism Online. He is the author of The Teamsters (1978) and After: How America Confronted the September 12th Era (2003).
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[edit] Class Warfare
His book, “Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America’s Schools” (2011) described the success of charter schools, using the Harlem Success Academy as an example, and profiled teacher Jessica Reid as a model of what could be done without union restrictions. He described how unions, particularly the United Federation of Teachers and UFT president Randi Weingarten in New York City, protected incompetent teachers, and were opposed to pay-for-performance, and obstructed necessary reforms,[5] a system he previously exposed in The New Yorker.[6]
But by the time Brill came to the end of the book, Reid quit. The long hours and stress of her job, with nightly calls to parents, and constant prodding of students, were affecting her marriage. Brill changed his position on charter schools and unions. He said that after two years of researching school reform, he understood the complexities. He reversed his view of Weingarten, and proposed that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg appoint her chancellor of the school system.[5]
Nonetheless, Diane Ravitch criticized Brill for being too uncritical of the charter school movement. "Unfortunately, Brill is completely ignorant of a vast body of research literature about teaching. Economists agree that teachers are the most important influence on student test scores inside the school, but the influence of schools and teachers is dwarfed by nonschool factors, most especially by family income."[7]
[edit] Personal life
Brill is a graduate of Deerfield Academy and Yale University (B.A., 1972; J.D., 1975). He is married and has three children. He currently resides in New York City and Bedford, New York.[8]
[edit] Timeline of projects
- 1978, October: Teamsters (ISBN 0-671-22771-8) is published
- 1979: The American Lawyer launches
- 1991: CourtTV launches[9]
- 1998, August: Brill's Content launches
- 2000, July: Contentville launches[10]
- 2001: Brill begins teaching an advanced journalism course at Yale[11]
- 2001, November: Brill signs on as a contributing editor for Newsweek[9]
- 2003, April: After: How America Confronted the September 12 Era (ISBN 0-7432-3709-9) is published
- 2003, October: The America Prepared Campaign is launched[12]
- 2003, Fall: Founded Verified Identity Pass/Clear Registered Traveler
- 2009, April: Co-founded Journalism Online, a digital publishing services company[13]
- 2009, June 23: The Clear/Verified Identity Pass program is abruptly ended.
[edit] American Lawyer
The American Lawyer is a monthly law magazine founded by Brill in 1979. One of its early contributors was Jim Cramer. The magazine covered the rise and subsequent precipitous collapse of the law firm of Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey in 1987.[14]
[edit] Brill's Content
Brill's Content was a media watchdog publication that ceased publication in 2001.[15] The publication ran from Vol. 1, no. 1 (Aug. 1998)-v. 4, no. 6 (Fall 2001).[16]
[edit] Clear
In 2003, Brill founded Clear, a subsidiary of Verified Identity Pass, Inc.[17] It allowed travelers to get through airport security quickly with an annual subscription to the program and pre-screening.
According to their website,[3] Clear ceased operations "at 11:00 p.m. PST on June 22, 2009... Clear’s parent company, Verified Identity Pass, Inc. has been unable to negotiate an agreement with its senior creditor to continue operations."
[edit] Journalism Online
In 2009, Brill and two other media executives created Journalism Online to help newspapers and magazines charge for online access.[18]
[edit] Quotations
"Journalists are probably the only people on the planet who make lawyers look good."[19]
[edit] Bibliography
- Brill, Steven (2003). After : how America confronted the September 12 era. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0743237099. LCCN 2003-42727.
- Brill, Steven (2011). Class warfare : inside the fight to fix America's schools. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781451611991. LCCN 2011-16196.
- Brill, Steven (1977). Firearm abuse : a research and policy report. Washington, D.C.: Police Foundation. LCCN 76-51921.
- Brill, Steven (1978). The Teamsters. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0671227718. LCCN 78-16610.
- Brill, Steven; editors and reporters of the American Lawyer (1989). Trial by jury. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671671324. LCCN 89-26309.
[edit] References
- ^ "Steven Brill" (Fee - via Fairfax County Public Library). Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale. 2005. Gale Document Number: GALE|H1000012101. http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=BIC2&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CH1000012101&mode=view&userGroupName=fairfax_main&jsid=5f62d4c19c6e53457d727c8071ba4157. Retrieved 2011-08-21. Gale Biography In Context.
- ^ Verifiedpass.com
- ^ a b flyclear.com
- ^ Downsizings, Oct. 16-31, 2001
- ^ a b Teaching With the Enemy By JOE NOCERA, New York Times, November 7, 2011
- ^ Annals of Education: The Rubber Room: The battle over New York City’s worst teachers. by Steven Brill, The New Yorker, August 31, 2009
- ^ School ‘Reform’: A Failing Grade Diane Ravitch, New York Review of Books, September 29, 2011
- ^ Palm eBook Store: Author: Steven Brill in the Yale Alumni Magazine
- ^ a b Brill is born again as a Newsweek columnist
- ^ Listen Up Contentville - Authors Win Lawduit in ForeWord
- ^ Yale's content enhanced by Brill in Yale Alumni Magazine
- ^ The America Prepared Campaign at ClearChannel
- ^ Journalism’s Savior? - Newsweek
- ^ SHIPP, E. R. (November 11, 1987). "Finley, Kumble, Major Law Firm, Facing Revamping or Dissolution". New York Times Finley, Kumble, Major Law Firm, Facing Revamping or Dissolution. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/11/business/finley-kumble-major-law-firm-facing-revamping-or-dissolution.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm. Retrieved 2011-08-21. Article is about the event only - makes no mention of Brill or American Lawyer
- ^ Brill's Content Closes and Primedia Acquires Inside The Write News
- ^ "Brill's Content", Worldcat (OCLC), 2011, http://www.worldcat.org/title/brills-content/oclc/39107386, retrieved 2011-05-10
- ^ Clear Corporate Information[dead link]
- ^ Media Executives Plan Online Service to Charge for Content
- ^ Wolff, Michael (September 7, 1998). "Wolff's Brill's Content". New York Magazine. http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/politics/columns/citypolitic/1680/. Retrieved 2011-08-20.
[edit] External links
- A film clip "The Open Mind - A Gadfly Among Lawyers (1983)" is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
- A film clip "The Open Mind - A Code For Journalists (1995)" is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
