- Yale Law School students who plan to be journalists, advocates for journalists, policy makers or leaders in the media industry;
- working journalists who seek a deeper understanding of law, media, and policy;
- scholars who study cutting-edge issues of law and media.
The Law and Media Program is open to all Yale Law School students, including students in the J.D. and graduate programs. No special application is required. The program includes courses related to law and media; writing workshops; speakers, conferences and events; and career counseling and support for summer internships. The Program’s co-directors are Professors Jack Balkin and Robert Post. Pulitzer Prize-winning legal writer Linda Greenhouse ’78 M.S.L. will return to Yale Law School in January 2009 as the Knight Distinguished Journalist-in-Residence.
The Law School received a grant from John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to support many of these efforts through the Knight Law and Media Scholars Program. In addition, the Knight grant will enable the Law School to bring working journalists to the Law School for training programs and conferences.
Law and Media programming at the Law School is enhanced by the Information Society Project, an intellectual center founded in 1997 to study the effects of new information technologies on law and society and to promote access to knowledge, freedom of speech, and civil liberties in the United States and around the world.
The Law School also offers the Degree of Master of Studies in Law (M.S.L.) for journalists seeking an intensive immersion in legal thinking so that they are better able to educate their audiences upon their return to journalism. This one-year program is designed for those who do not desire a professional law degree, but who are interested in a rigorous curriculum and grounding in legal studies. Need-based financial aid is available for M.S.L. candidates, as is the Law School’s post-graduate loan repayment assistance program, COAP.