Midwin Charles to examine media coverage, fair trials in next IJPM lecture on March 2

Midwin Charles to examine media coverage, fair trials in next IJPM lecture on March 2February 24, 2009Sara Millersemortim@syr.edu

Midwin Charles, of Midwin Charles & Associates LLC, will present “The Impact of Media Coverage on a Defendant’s Right to a Fair Trial” on Monday, March 2, as part of the spring “Law, Politics and the Media” lecture series presented by the Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics, and the Media (IJPM). Charles’ lecture will take place from 3:50-5:10 p.m. in Room 204 at the Syracuse University College of Law. Her lecture is free and open to the public. Parking is available in SU pay lots.

Charles is a New York-based lawyer who appears as a regular guest commentator for the “Nancy Grace Show” and “Showbiz Tonight” on CNN, as well as TRU TV’s (formerly Court TV) “Open Court,” “Best Defense” and “Courtside.” She also provides commentary for “America’s Nightly Scorecard” and “Happy Hour” on the FOX Business Network and MSNBC. Charles is the founding member of Midwin Charles and Associates LLC, a law firm that specializes in criminal law, general corporate law and litigation. She worked for six years at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, where she managed complex general and commercial litigation and federal investigations, and defended class action suits. Her experience includes the representation of World Trade Center victims, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts clients and criminal appellate work.

As an expert public speaker, Charles has covered topics ranging from careers in law and legal journalism to entrepreneurship and hot-button news issues for the American Bar Association, International Law Section, the Sylvania Woods Conference at the American University Washington College of Law, Women in Entertainment Empowerment Network and various other organizations. An avid supporter of diversity in higher education, Charles is a member of the Dean’s Diversity Council for WCL and the Marketing Committee for Syracuse University.

She graduated from SU, then earned her law degree at the American University Washington College of Law, where she was an articles editor for the American University Law Review. Following law school, she served as a law clerk for U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Judge Eric L. Clay and as the A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Research Fellow in Social Justice at Harvard Law School under the supervision of Charles J. Ogletree Jr. She is admitted to the New York State Bar, the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the Supreme Court of the United States.

The goal of the “Law, Politics and the Media” lecture series is to provide an introduction to the court system and its environment as a single, integrated subject of study. Throughout the spring semester, sitting judges, practicing lawyers and working journalists are featured speakers. The lecture series is part of an interdisciplinary course on law, politics and the media that is cross-listed between the College of Law, the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. The course is taught by SU professors Keith Bybee (IJPM director), Lisa Dolak (IJPM associate director) and Mark Obbie (IJPM associate director), and funded through support from the John Ben Snow Foundation and the Carnegie Corp. of New York.

Launched in September 2006, IJPM is an academic institute devoted to the interdisciplinary study of issues at the intersection of law, politics and the media. A collaborative effort of the College of Law, Maxwell School and Newhouse School, the institute sponsors lectures, conferences and symposia designed to foster discussion and debate among legal scholars, sitting judges and working journalists.

For more information on the “Law, Politics and the Media” lecture series and IJPM, visit http://jpm.syr.edu.