Herald columnist Jeff Robbins publishes a book of his best columns

Jeff Robbins at his book party. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)

Jeff Robbins, a lawyer and columnist for the Herald, has published a book documenting his work as a First Amendment advocate.

He has defended this paper in court and on the opinion pages with intelligence and wit. You may agree with his opinion or not, but that is why the First Amendment comes, well, first. He cares deeply about the readers of the Herald and brings balance to this paper.

His book “Notes from the Brink” is a collection of his best columns from 2019 to this year.

He is a staunch Democrat, but that doesn’t stop him from attacking progressives for allowing anti-Semitism to grow on college campuses. Israel’s war against Hamas is complicated, and Robbins has brought his knowledge to the issue.

“He brings clarity to every single topic he writes about,” said Ambassador Meron Reuben, Israel’s consul general in New England. “I look to Jeff to help me find my way in Boston.”

Robbins is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney and delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and was chief counsel to the minority of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

At the Herald, he has supported our fight for public documents that advances our investigative reporting. When we are blocked from doing so, Robbins has fought to unseal government documents that readers have a right to know.

Robbins writes in today’s edition that the American media still has a lot of work to do. Nearly 40 percent of Americans say they have no trust in journalists at all. Jeff Robbins works every day to turn that percentage around.

“What sets him apart are his principles,” said attorney Joe Lipchitz, managing partner of her firm Saul Ewing, at the book party in the city on Monday evening. “To remain silent would be complicity.”