Contact:  Kenneth Brown – 800-282-6556 or 614-487-4426

Columbus, Ohio (Sept. 21, 2009) – The Ohio State Bar Association (OSBA) will host its annual day-long Law & Media Conference on Friday, October 2 at OSBA headquarters in Columbus (1700 Lake Shore Drive).  The Ohio Association of Broadcasters, the Ohio Newspaper Association, and the Central Ohio Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists are joint sponsors. Bringing together lawyers, reporters, editors, judges, academics and others, the conference deals with a wide range of hot issues affecting both media and legal professionals. 

Richard Boehne, president and CEO of E.W. Scripps Co. in Cincinnati, will lead off with an address titled, “What Does the Future Hold for Local Media?”

Brett Thurman, general counsel for Cox Ohio Media in Dayton, will moderate a session about making news coverage more effective in a tight economy.  Panelists include Richard Boehne; Ed Esposito, vice-president of Information Media for the Rubber City Radio Group in Akron; and Cleveland attorney David Marburger of Baker & Hostetler LLP.

“Sexting “ is the title of a provocative session about the “texting gone wild” phenomenon and its impact on media law and policy.  Cincinnati attorney Kurt R. Hunt of Dinsmore & Shohl LLP will moderate, and panelists will include attorney Rachel Hutzel of the Warren County Prosecutor’s Office in Lebanon; and Cincinnati attorney Lou Sirkin of Sirkin Pinales & Schwartz.

Is justice for sale?  Find out about the possible effects of the Caperton case upon judges’ decisions to step aside in cases involving campaign donors.  William K. Weisenberg, OSBA assistant executive director for public affairs and chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) Standing Committee on Judicial Independence, will moderate, and panelists will include Herbert R. Brown, attorney and former justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio; James Nash, Columbus Dispatch reporter, and Bradley A. Smith, a professor at Capital University School of Law in Columbus.

Jeffrey Froelich, 2^nd District Court of Appeals judge,  will moderate a discussion of new media challenges in the courtroom in a demonstration of how Dayton’s Bench-Bar-Media Forum encourages Miami Valley individuals who work with the law, the courts and the media to get to know each other as human beings while sharing concerns about issues affecting these sometimes oppositional professions. The panel will include Brennan Donnellan, former news director for WLWT in Cincinnati; Cincinnati attorney Jill Meyer of Frost Brown Todd LLC; and Hon. Walter Rice, U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

Public records, anyone?  Learn the latest about public records law from expert William F. Kolis (moderator), an attorney with the Avon firm of Wickens Herzer Panza Cook and Batista, Co., and panelists Jeffery Clark, an attorney with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office; Emily Grannis, Ohio University student and reporter for the campus newspaper, The Post; and Columbus attorney Mark Weaver of Isaac Brant Ledman & Teetor.

Richard M. Goehler of Frost Brown Todd LLC in Cincinnati will moderate a session on the latest issues in privacy and libel law, including: public vs. private figure plaintiffs, opinion speech protection in Ohio, libel by implication, publication of private facts, misappropriation and publicity rights, intrusion and interceptions.  Reporter and lawyer Nadia Bashir of WFFT in Ft. Wayne, Indiana; Cleveland attorney David Marburger of Baker & Hostetler LLP; and Cleveland attorney Kenneth Zirm of Ulmer & Berne LLP, will serve as panelists.

Technology has dramatically changed the way the media interacts with the public.  Hear about the latest technology being used, war stories from an editor’s desk, and the legal pitfalls. Kevin Shook, an attorney with the Columbus office of Frost Brown Todd LLC, will moderate the session. He will be joined by Debra Jasper, director of the Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism for The Ohio State University; Gary Kiefer, managing editor of new media for The Dispatch in Columbus; and attorney Brett Thurman of Cox Ohio Media in Dayton.

Hagit Limor, an investigative reporter for WCPO-TV in Cincinnati, will lead a spirited discussion about why this year may be the best chance to pass a federal shield law, and why reporters at every level should care. Panelists include Cincinnati attorney and former journalist Monica Dias of Frost Brown Todd LLC; Detroit attorneys Herschel Fink and Richard Zuckerman of Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP; and Kevin Riley, editor of the Dayton Daily News.

“From Newspaper Theft to Twitter:  The Student Press and the Law” is the title of a session moderated by Professor Mark Goodman of Kent State University School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Joining him on the panel will be Melinda Rhodes, Ohio Wesleyan University professor and student newspaper faculty advisor; David Strukel, Communication Studies lecturer, University of Toledo; and Jacquelyn Valley, student editor of the Daily Kent Stater, Kent State University.

Conference registration will begin at 9:15 a.m. and the program will conclude at 3:45 p.m.  Lunch and handout materials are provided to attendees, and 4.5 hours of continuing legal education (CLE) credit has been approved.

To register for the conference, call the OSBA at (800) 232-7124 or (614) 487-8585 or visit www.ohiobar.org/pub/?articleid=107.  Advance-registration conference cost for journalists and non-lawyers is $30; $50 for lawyers, and $15 for students.  After Sept. 25, the cost for journalists and lawyers is increased by $20. The Ohio Newspaper Association (ONA), one of the conference’s sponsors, is offering a $30 scholarship to the first conference attendee from any ONA member newspaper. The Ohio Association of Broadcasters (OAB) will underwrite the registration fee for the first 20 registrants from OAB member stations.  OAB members wishing to register should contact Patricia Geary at (866) OAB-5794.

The Ohio State Bar Association, founded in 1880, is a voluntary association representing approximately 25,000 members of the bench and bar of Ohio as well as nearly 4,000 legal assistants and law students.  Through its activities and the activities of its related organizations, the OSBA serves both its members and the public by promoting the highest standards in the practice of law and the administration of justice.                           

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