School for Journalists Will Cover New Media, Reporting, and the Law at the U of M

For release: September 1, 2009
For press information, contact Gabrielle Maxey, 901/678-2843

During the fourth annual Law School for Journalists at the University of Memphis, lawyers and members of the media will explore how new technology, from Web sites to blogs to Twitter, is changing the way journalism is practiced and how the law and legal system are struggling to adapt. The event will be Saturday, Sept. 12, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. at the U of M’s Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law.

The seminar is free for journalists and for marketing and public relations professionals. There is a fee for judges and attorneys who are seeking Continuing Legal Education credit.

Panels of expert media lawyers and experienced reporters and bloggers will discuss how traditional access and open records and open meetings law are adapting ¬– or not adapting – to the new media environment. Panelists will include attorneys Paul Alan Levy, Alan D. Johnson, and Richard L. Hollow, Judge Chris Craft, Commercial Appeal reporter Clay Bailey, John Branston of the Memphis Flyer, and Ken Jobe and Lauren Lee of FOX 13 news, WHBQ-TV.

Brooke Gladstone, co-host of NPR's On the Media

The program is sponsored by The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, the University of Memphis Law Alumni Chapter, the Department of Journalism, the Memphis Bar Association, and the Memphis Mid-South Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.

Parking will be available in the garage adjacent to the Fogelman Executive Center on Innovation Drive, just off Central Avenue, and in the Central Avenue parking lot.

Registration is available online at www.memphisbar.org

More information is available from Dottie McCallen or Lesia Beach of the Memphis Bar Association at 901-527-3573.