2011: After Enron: Have Modern Media Wrecked Traditional Venue Law?
REYNOLDS NATIONAL CENTER FOR COURTS AND MEDIA (RNCCM)
WINTER REGIONAL CONFERENCE:
After Enron: Have Modern Media Wrecked Traditional Venue Law?
Videos coming soon.
The Reynolds National Center for Courts and Media hosted its first Regional Conference on Wednesday January 26, 2011 in Houston at the South Texas College of Law.
The conference, titled “After Enron: Have Social Media Wrecked Traditional Venue Law?” was valuable and insightful according to feedback from attendees. The conference was recognized by the Texas Bar Association and granted 5.25 units of credit for any practicing Texas lawyer who attended.
The conference also marked the unveiling of the premiere issue of the Reynolds Courts and Media Law Journal (see separate article).
The audience at the conference was comprised of more than 60 courts-and-media stakeholders, including 10 past or current judges, more than a two dozen journalists from the Houston Chronicle, and several of the state’s top media lawyers.
Our aim was to have panelists and presenters with a decidedly local flavor to encourage internal dialogue after the conference.
Participants included Chronicle Metro reporter Rick Casey, who has written many critical pieces about judges, and Seana Willing, executive director of the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct. Participating judges included Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht and Judge Jane Bland of the First District Court of Appeal.
Award-winning Houston television personality Wayne Dolcefino and Harvard law school-trained reporter-turned-PR executive Mary Flood also attended. The event had a strong showing from students and faculty from South Texas and other local law schools.
Panelists and attendees spent the day discussing and debating some of the most cutting-edge issues of the day involving venue and media coverage of the courts. Among the topics discussed at the conference:
• Have Social Media Wrecked Traditional Venue Law?
• What are the standards for venue change in the age of Twitter?
• Reasonable rules that protect the public’s right to know.
• Judges: Understand how the press works.
• Journalists: Learn how to better cover the courts.
• Judges and Journalists: Can’t We All Just Get Along?
Lunch speaker Chip Babcock – counsel to television superstar Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Phil and the Tribune Company, among others – introduced the audience to cutting-edge research involving the impact of a juror’s chronological age on personal beliefs about piracy of online data such as music, videos or other copyrighted material. The research could have broad impact on jury selection in intellectual property cases.
