Perry B Friedman

Perry B. Friedman built an unusually varied career before turning to the practice of law. Originally from New York, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics and computer science from Stanford University, then worked as a technologist at IBM and Oracle. He later founded a sports handicapping startup and, in 2003, became one of the earliest employees of Tiltware, the software company behind Full Tilt Poker. Alongside his business ventures he was an accomplished professional poker player, winning the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split Eight-or-Better event at the 2002 World Series of Poker and accumulating more than $1.1 million in live tournament earnings over his career.

Friedman came to the law later in life, enrolling at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, William S. Boyd School of Law in 2012 and graduating in the spring of 2016. He was admitted to the State Bar of Nevada on October 11, 2016. Drawn to public-interest work, he expressed a commitment to pro bono civil liberties advocacy, saying he hoped to fight for justice and help protect the liberties and freedoms of the country - values shaped in part by his earlier involvement in a First Amendment challenge to a speech code during his time at Stanford.

During his final year of law school, Friedman established the Perry Friedman Civil Liberties Scholarship at UNLV's Boyd School of Law, which supports a student each fall and spring semester who is dedicated to the defense of civil liberties. Settling in Las Vegas, he continued to combine his interests in law, technology, and philanthropy until his death. Perry B. Friedman died on January 21, 2024, at the age of 55.