About Edward Friedman

Edward Friedman (he/him/his) is a child of Jewish refugees who met in Brooklyn after they immigrated to the United States with their families from the former Soviet Union (Moscow and Kyiv respectively) when they were teenagers in 1989.

A native New Yorker, he was born with cerebral palsy and is a passionate disability justice advocate who currently uses a power wheelchair for day-to-day mobility.

Prior to entering law school, Edward was the policy and intergovernmental affairs coordinator at the New York City Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities in the de Blasio Administration where he managed relationships with City Hall leadership, government partners, and disability advocates.

At Yale, Edward represented the law school on the Graduate & Professional Student Senate, where he was an elected Co-Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and provided a voice for students with disabilities on the University’s Advisory Committee on Accessibility Resources. He was also on the Executive Board of the Disabled Law Students Association and a member of the Jewish Law Students Association.

He is currently a Law Clerk in the Litigation Department of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and is based in the firm’s New York City office. Edward passed the July 2024 New York State bar examination with a score high enough to practice law in any Uniform Bar Examination jurisdiction. He is not yet admitted. He remains deeply involved in New York City politics and disability rights.

Edward was a 2018 valedictorian at Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College, CUNY and received his JD from Yale Law School in 2024 with the support of the Fellowship.