Edward Adams Named ABA Journal's Editor and Publisher
Edward A. Adams, who has worked as the public information officer for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria since 2002, has been named the new editor and publisher of the ABA Journal and the ABA Journal eReport.
Adams worked for 13 years at American Lawyer Magazine, the National Law Journal and the New York Law Journal, where he was a reporter, online editor and an executive editor.
He starts Sept. 5 at the ABA Journal, which has a circulation of nearly 400,000, making it the largest legal publication in the world. Adams replaces Danial Kim, who was the Journal's editor and publisher for five years before resigning in January to become vice president for a partnership that operates the city's two largest dailies, the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News.
Betsy Paret, Adams' former supervisor at the district court, told the eReport, "He's an amazing writer, a visionary in terms of how to best present information to people, and someone with excellent judgment and discretion." Paret is now the deputy circuit executive for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
"Ed is a very intelligent, articulate and experienced journalist who has worked in law-related publications for many years," told the eReport Barbara Howard, a Cincinnati attorney who chaired the search committee for the ABA Journal Board of Editors. "He has a lot of energy and great ideas. He understands the population we serve because he's a lawyer, and he understands the pre-eminence of the Journal."
Adams is expected to use the Web to promote upcoming articles in the magazine, and to redesign the magazine itself.
Adams received his bachelor's degree from Miami University of Ohio in Oxford and his law degree from Columbia University School of Law in New York City. As public information officer in Virginia, Adams created media plans for cases with huge national media interest, including those of Zacarias Moussaoui, Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph, and John Walker Lindh, who was dubbed the "American Taliban." Adams is the only PIO in the country working for a federal trial court, assisting courts to identify logistical problems with high-profile cases, "things like access to court documents, seats in the courtroom, where reporters are going to set up for TV stand-up locations, how we'll move people into the courtroom without disrupting other courtrooms," he told the eReport.
