Will Creeley

Since joining FIRE in 2006, Will has successfully defended expressive rights and core civil liberties nationwide. As legal director, Will coordinates FIRE’s legal advocacy and oversees FIRE’s litigation, legislative and policy, and policy reform departments. He has appeared on national television and radio, testified before Congress, and spoken to countless students, faculty, administrators, and attorneys across the country about First Amendment rights.

A co-author of First Things First: A Modern Coursebook on Free Speech Fundamentals, Will’s writing has been published by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and many other outlets.

Barred in New York and Pennsylvania, Will is a member of the First Amendment Lawyers Association and the former co-chair of the Education Subcommittee of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice.

Will is a 2006 graduate of New York University School of Law, where he served as an associate executive editor for the New York University Law Review. Will graduated magna cum laude from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study in 2003. A proud native of Buffalo, New York, Will now lives in New Jersey with his wife and two children.

Selected television appearances

• CBS’s The Takeout with Major Garrett (2025)
• BBC’s The Context (2025)
• CBC’s Hanomansing Tonight (2025)
• C-SPAN’s Washington Journal (2024)

Selected podcast/radio appearances

• WHYY’s Studio 2 (2025)
• So To Speak (2025)
• The Moynihan Report (2025)

Selected writings

• Media outlets must not cave to Trump’s lawfare (FIRE, 2025)
• Those Who Preach Free Speech Need to Practice It (The Atlantic, 2024)
• The trouble with Congress or college presidents policing free speech on campuses (Los Angeles Times, 2023; with Eugene Volokh)
• How to Respond to Richard Spencer (The New York Times, 2017)
• What Happens at the Cocoa Hut Doesn’t Stay at the Cocoa Hut: Assessing K–12 Student Speech Rights After Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. (Case Western Reserve Law Review, 2023)
• Restoring free speech on campus (The Washington Post, 2015; with Geoffrey R. Stone)
• How the Sex-Harassment Cops Became Speech Police (The Wall Street Journal, 2016)

Available Speeches

• Know Your Rights! Free Speech 101 
• Speech, Censorship, and Violence
• Free Expression on Campus: Why It Matters and How to Protect It
• From the Courtroom to the Classroom: Constitutional Law and K-12 Education
• Due Process Explained