Adam Liptak Named New Supreme Court Reporter at The New York Times

For the first time in decades, The New York Times has a new Supreme Court reporter.

Adam Liptak, the Times' national legal reporter, is taking over the position Linda Greenhouse—who covered the beat, off and on, for 30 years—vacated in February after taking a $300,000 buyout. Before Mr. Liptak was a reporter, he was a lawyer for the paper. He joined the newsroom in 2002.

Here's the memo from Washington bureau chief Dean Baquet:

By now it is no surprise that Linda Greenhouse will be leaving us for academia. And it is no exaggeration to say that Linda's run in the Supreme Court was historic. She set the standard, making one of The Times's premier beats even more vital to the paper, and the country. All I'll say is that if you want to see the work of someone with total and majestic command of a subject, take a look at Linda's coverage of the court's role in Bush v. Gore. We'll have a lot more to say as we celebrate Linda's career in the coming months.

We think we have found exactly the right person to succeed Linda. I am pleased to announce that Adam Liptak will be the paper's Supreme Court reporter. If Adam's time as national legal correspondent is any measure, he will continue to make coverage of the court one of the paper's distinguishing features, something we do better than anyone else in the country.

Since joining the newsroom in 2002, Adam has covered the Valerie Wilson case and the Supreme Court nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito. He has roamed the country bringing life to musty legal cases and fights over judicial ethics, and produced major projects on the criminal justice system. He has also written a must-read column, Sidebar, that has been cited on the floor of the Senate, in Federal appeals and district court decisions, in editorials in The Times and The Washington Post, and on the Colbert Report (I kid you not). Before joining the newsroom, Adam was one of our lawyers. And before that he was an associate at the New York firm of Cahill Gordon and Reindel.
The resume is impressive. But what impressed me most in my discussions with Adam was his remarkable ability to talk about the law with sweep and simplicity. It was striking that these are the precise qualities that make Linda such a great reporter.

Adam and his wife, Jennifer Bitman, a veterinarian, will move to the Washington area later this year, along with their children Ivan and Katie.
Dean