Harold Medina Jr.

He died from lung cancer on February 17, 1991, at home in Village of Golf, Florida, at the age of 78. His father had died eleven months earlier at the age of 102.

In 1967, Medina won a 5-to-4 US Supreme Court vote on Time, Inc. v. Hill, 385 U.S. 374, in a suit brought by a family that claimed invasion of privacy based on portrayal of family members in a review of the 1955 Broadway play, The Desperate Hours. He argued that "articles or broadcasts that give a false impression of a person do not constitute an invasion of privacy unless the falsehood is published deliberately or recklessly", thus extending constitutional protections of the press.

During the Hiss Case (1948–1950), Medina represented Time in the defense of its senior editor Whittaker Chambers. In his memoir, Chambers explained his role:

In early December 1948, Chambers conferred with Medina about his employment with Time. Medina assured him "In six weeks this whole thing will be forgotten and you will be back at work as usual." He escorted Chambers to a meeting at Time headquarters, where Chambers decided he should nevertheless resign. (Less than two weeks later, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted Hiss on two counts of perjury, which turned into two trials that ended with sentencing in January 1950.)

When Chambers sought his advice on picking counsel in New York City during the Hiss trials, Medina received a call from congressional representative Richard M. Nixon. Nixon told Medina that Kodak had found that the microfilm from the "Pumpkin Papers" did not exist until 1945 (and not in 1938), the date of Chambers' microfilm. Chambers attempted suicide that evening, failed, and then learned from Kodak next morning that they had made an error: Kodak had merely discontinued production of that kind of microfilm during WWII.

He graduated from The Hill School. He received a B.A. summa cum laude from Princeton University and in 1937 a law degree from Columbia University.

In 1937, Medina joined the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore and spent his entire career there, reaching partner in 1949 and retiring in 1974.

Harold Raymond Medina Jr. (October 19, 1912 – February 17, 1991) was an American trial lawyer and expert in libel, privacy, and copyright, who spent his career with the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore.