2025 – Most of New York City’s local news outlets do not have the resources to have in-house counsel nor do they have the resources to retain counsel when it matters. Lawyers help news outlets by building solid internal systems that comply with the law, by furthering their access to data and information, by minimizing legal risks and protecting against lawsuits, and by defending them from retaliation. Revson’s funding to expand the First Amendment Clinic at Cornell Law School’s to New York City provides an invaluable and pro bono legal safety net for all local news outlets in the New York City metro area.

Since 2020, the Clinic has guided numerous New York City based clients through commercial, employment, and pre-publication questions that they otherwise would have had to navigate alone. The Clinic has also defended a journalist from being forced to reveal anonymous sources, unlocked information from city agencies that had long concealed it, commenced a lawsuit to enforce an agency’s FOIL obligations, and more such as providing  legal training sessions for community media. Their work has been critical to the internal operations of news outlets and to their reporting including Documented’s Wage Theft Monitor, Streetsblog’s reporting on the black market for temporary license plates, and THE CITY’s reporting on the Department of Education’s reviews of the instruction and standards at Brooklyn-based yeshivas.

Read an op-ed from the Director and Associate Director of the First Amendment Clinic about their effort to help a New York City based journalist get information about the judicial appointment process. 

Read more about the Clinic’s lawsuit on behalf of Streetsblog to force the city Department of Transportation to comply with the state’s Freedom of Information Law.

Photo credit: Cornell University Relations (Lindsay France)