Herald Price Fahringer

Herald Price Fahringer, an urbane New York lawyer who forswore most vices himself but who, on free speech grounds, gamely defended Larry Flynt and Al Goldstein when they were accused of distributing pornography, and represented other high-profile clients like Claus von Bülow and Jean S. Harris, died on Feb. 12 205 at his home in Manhattan. He was 87. He had prostate cancer, his law partner, Erica T. Dubno, who confirmed the death, said. In 1974, Mr. Fahringer’s representation of Mr. Goldstein, who was facing 60 years in prison on federal pornography charges in Kansas, resulted in a mistrial and an overturned conviction. In the 1990s, his nonstop litigation forced a delay in the Giuliani administration’s efforts to shutter sex shops in Times Square. Herald Price Fahringer was born in Lewisburg, Pa., on Nov. 6, 1927. His father, Herald Price Fahringer Jr. (who later dropped the “Jr.”), was an oil company engineer and professional boxer. His mother, the former Pauline Dyer, was a homemaker. He graduated from Pennsylvania State University and the University at Buffalo Law School and served in the Army in Korea. His marriage to Barbara Falk ended in divorce. For several decades he lived with his companion, Margaret Noyes, who died in 2007. No immediate family members survive.