Non-Resident Senior Fellow
Jeff Kosseff is a nonresident senior legal fellow at The Future of Free Speech. Jeff is a First Amendment lawyer and former journalist who was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting and a recipient of the George Polk Award for National Reporting.
He has written four books about free speech. The Future of Free Speech: Reversing the Global Decline of Democracy’s Most Essential Freedom (with Jacob Mchangama) (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2026) examines recent challenges to free expression worldwide and suggests solutions to reduce global censorship. Liar in a Crowded Theater: Freedom of Speech in a World of Misinformation (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023) explains and defends the First Amendment’s robust protections for false speech. The United States of Anonymous: How the First Amendment Shaped Online Speech (Cornell University Press, 2022) explores the longstanding tradition of anonymous speech in the United States. The Twenty-Six Words That Created the Internet (Cornell University Press, 2019) traces the history of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Kosseff is also the author of Cybersecurity Law (Wiley, 2026), a textbook that is in its fourth edition. He has published more than 25 academic articles in venues including the Iowa Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review, and Berkeley Technology Law Journal.
Kosseff practiced First Amendment and cybersecurity law at Covington & Burling in Washington, DC, and clerked for the Hon. Milan D. Smith, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Hon. Leonie M. Brinkema of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Before becoming a lawyer, Kosseff was a journalist at The Oregonian.
Kosseff has a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center and a Master of Public Policy and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan.
