(Excerpts of this profile were originally published by Gay City News)
The sixth annual Gay City News Impact Awards will be held virtually on November 11, and will recognize exceptional LGBTQ trailblazers and supportive allies who have made a difference in the community. David Flugman, a partner at Selendy & Gay and leader of the firm's diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, is among this year's honorees.
Flugman has a wide-ranging background encompassing international and domestic cases, including prominent LGBTQ rights cases. He has secured significant legal victories throughout his career across industries such as private equity, consulting, and retail, and has extensive experience handling insolvency, corporate, securities, complex commercial, and business tort disputes.
Flugman has devoted much of his public interest practice to advancing LGBTQ rights. He wrote substantially on conversion therapy when he was a law student, and went on to lead the team that secured a victory in New Jersey when the Third Circuit Court of Appeals rejected efforts to reverse the state’s ban on conversion therapy.
Additionally, Flugman represented four law professors as counsel of record in the U.S. Supreme Court last year in the Fulton v. City of Philadelphia case, urging the court to retain the test for determining whether a law violates the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.
He is member of the Judiciary Committee of the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Greater New York (LeGaL) and the National Leadership Council for the National Center for Lesbian Rights. Flugman has also delivered speeches about LGBTQ legal issues at multiple law schools.
Flugman grew up on Long Island and attended Yale University before receiving his JD from Harvard Law School.