On Thursday, March 24, 2022, Clinic students and faculty had the privilege of meeting with an all-star team of reporters, lawyers, and standards editors from the Wall Street Journal and its parent company Dow Jones. During the virtual meeting – the Clinic’s semi-annual “newsroom visit” – students learned about the Wall Street Journal’s approach to managing legal risk and ensuring its reporting is fair, accurate, and balanced. The Journal team described how reporters, lawyers, and standards editors collaborate from the conception of a story through its publication (and beyond, when necessary). As a case study for this process in action, the Journal team discussed their work on the Journal’s 2021 investigation finding that dozens of federal judges across the country had undisclosed financial conflicts.
The Clinic is grateful to the Journal team for taking the time to speak to our students and faculty. As many students in the Clinic wish to pursue careers in media law, these newsroom visits and other opportunities to interact with lawyers, editors, and reporters are immensely valuable to the students. Learning how an established outlet like the Wall Street Journal approaches its work also helps inform the students’ own work in the Clinic, where they frequently represent smaller outlets and independent journalists. The Clinic looks forward to continuing this newsroom visit tradition in the future.
