NEWS: PROGRAM IN LAW & JOURNALISM ANNOUNCES NEW ACADEMIC OPPORTUNITY

Beginning this Fall, students will be offered the opportunity to become Associates of the Program in Law & Journalism.

Through externships at top media companies, courses about law and media, and writing about the law for lawyers and non-lawyers, Associates will position themselves to succeed in today's competitive legal marketplace.

Requirements to successfully complete the program include coursework, externships and projects, as follows:

A) Coursework

PLJ will offer a selection of courses from which students may choose, depending upon their reasons for enrolling in the program. For example, one student may want to become a media law litigator, and will take Newsgathering and the Law; another student may be interested in exploring a career in journalism, and will want to enroll in Legal Journalism.

Mandatory Course: There will be one mandatory, gateway course for the PLJ Program, Legal Writing for New Media. The course will train students to use the skills of journalists in the new media environment.

Elective Courses: In addition, students will have to take at least 1 of the following courses:

• Advocacy, Media and the Big Case (Prof. Wiehl)
• Legal Journalism (Prof. Simon)
• Newsgathering and the Law (Prof. Stracher)
• Visual Persuasion (Prof. Sherwin)

B) Projects

Students will choose one of the following year-long projects (for which they will earn 2 academic credits):

1) Media-Watch Blogs -. In this independent study course, students will meet weekly in "workshop" format with Program Director Michelle Zierler to discuss the news of the week, their critiques, and drafts of their blogs. Students' blogs will be edited and posted on the PLJ website. (Note: Students enrolled in Media Watch Blogs cannot concurrently enroll in Legal Writing for New Media and vice-versa). 2) Legal Monographs - Under the guidance of Professor Lieberman, students enrolled in Explaining the Law to the Public will work in small teams to prepare a substantial paper on a single area of the law (e.g., The Patriot Act) for publication to an audience of policy-makers and journalists. The paper will present the law in a clear and comprehensive manner for use as reference material in subsequent writing on the subject. Completed papers will be published as monographs and distributed by the new publication arm of NYLS, Tribeca Square Press. (Note: Enrollment is limited. If registration for this course is closed and you would like to take this course in the Fall semester, please let us know.)

C) Externships

PLJ will place students for one-semester externships at the broadcast or cable networks, WNYC, Digital Democracy, or other appropriate media outlets, and provide supervision for the externships.

In addition, students may volunteer to assist in the various panels, colloquia, and conferences planned by PLJ for the upcoming academic year.

If you are interested in PLJ, we encourage you to contact Program Director, Michelle Zierler, (mzierler@nyls.edu)

We will also be having an open meeting during the first week of school this Fall to answer any additional questions.