This April 5 - 6, 2024, the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project at the Sturm College of Law will hold a free media training for activists and lawyers. Registration is free and open to all. Please join us!

Securing media coverage is crucial to activism. It ensures your message spreads far and wide, creating the kind of public debate that is key to social change. But pitching stories and giving interviews are unique skills–we talk to the press differently than we do to others in our daily lives. For lawyers, this comes with special ethical obligations. The weekend will include panels that will be eligible for CLE credits for attorneys (9 general CLE credits, 1.2 ethics CLE credits).

Join us in Denver – hear directly from journalists and communications professionals – learn how to sharpen your media skills and get your story out!

All panels will be held in the Ricketson Law Building (2255 Evans Avenue, Denver CO 80210) at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Friday panels will be held in LAW180 and Saturday panels will be held in LAW165. See below for directions and parking information!

Email CCarraway@law.du.edu for any questions. 
  5:30 PM - Behind the Reporting Process - Rachael Bale, Will Potter
How do journalists develop and report stories? How can activists and lawyers be a part of that process? Hear from two acclaimed journalist on their practice and see how we go from pitch to press!

6:30 PM - Dinner served (vegan, gluten-free options)
Attendees are welcome to continue eating during the next panel.

7:00 PM - Media Ethics (1.2 ethics CLE credits) - Andy McNulty, Esq; Rachael Bale
What are the ethical limitations on lawyers and journalists? What can they do and what can they not do? 
 
9:30 AM - Breakfast (vegan, gluten-free options)

10:00 AM - Storytelling - Crystal Maloney, Esq., Kelsey Hill
An interactive session focused on advocacy storytelling to help reshape narratives, engage audiences, and create meaningful change on issues you are working on. This session will also cover considerations for pitching stories to journalists.

11:15 AM - Practical Tips - Cheryl Leahy, Esq., Rachael Bale, Will Potter
This panel will go in-depth on some of the practical, mechanical skills required to effectively work with press. Come learn how to write press releases, how to create a press list, and how to participate in media interviews!

12:30 PM - Working Lunch (vegan, gluten-free options)
Reserve a 10-minute small group session with a journalist to develop your story or ask specific questions about working with reporters. Lunch will be provided.

2:00 PM - Break

2:30 PM - Best Practices for Social Media - Christopher "Soul" Eubanks, Crystal Maloney Esq., Zoe Rosenberg
For better or worse, social media is increasingly how most individuals consume news and has emerged as a valuable tool for advocacy. Hear from activists and attorneys on their best practices for effectively using social media, including what to consider when choosing your platform, how to most effectively craft your message, and interacting with users.

3:45 PM - Impact of Working Together - Trevor Aaronson, Will Potter
Journalists Trevor Aaronson and Will Potter discuss real-world examples of successful stories in the media where lawyers and activists have played a key role as sources, with a particular focus on Aaronson's podcast The Alphabet Boys.

Panelist Information:

Trevor Aaronson
Trevor is a contributing writer for The Intercept and a 2020 ASU Future Security Fellow at New America. He is also executive director of the nonprofit Florida Center for Investigative Reporting and author of “The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism.” His 2015 TED Talk, “How this FBI strategy is actually creating U.S.-based terrorists,” has been viewed more than 1 million times and translated into more than 20 languages. A two-time finalist for the Livingston Awards, Aaronson has won the Molly National Journalism Prize, the international Data Journalism Award, and the John Jay College/Harry Frank Guggenheim Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Award. His work for The Intercept has won honors from the Online Journalism Awards for investigative data journalism and feature writing. In January 2023, Aaronson launched a podcast series called Alphabet Boys about "secret investigations of the FBI, CIA, DEA, ATF, and other alphabet agencies". The first season, "Trojan Hearse", focuses on the summer 2020 COINTELPRO-like infiltration of antifa / Black Lives Matter protesters and activists in Denver, Colorado, following the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota in May 2020. 

Rachael Bale
Rachael is a freelance journalist who reports on wildlife, the environment, science, health, and more. She has published multiple features on wildlife trafficking in National Geographic magazine, where she led the Animals beat as executive editor for four years. She has a background in investigative reporting and is a two-time Livingston Award nominee for stories digging into inhumane conditions at U.S. Customs and Border Protection holding cells (Reveal, 2013) and into the illegal cheetah cub trade (National Geographic, 2021). She writes and edits features and news stories for digital and print media.

Christopher "Soul" Eubanks
Christopher is a social justice advocate, public speaker and non profit director raised in Atlanta, Ga that has dedicated himself to doing advocacy work that advocates for collective liberation. After learning the horrors of animal exploitation, Christopher became vegan, began doing community organizing and helped to co-organize Atlanta’s first ever animal rights march. Christopher is the founder of APEX Advocacy, a non profit animal rights organization that teaches grassroots activism and creates various campaigns to empower Black, Indigenous People of color to advocate for animal rights.

Kelsey Hill
Kelsey is a creative with a passion to empower, provoke thought, and drive change. With experience in branding, web design, product design, medical design, and advertising she is well-versed in design processes. She believes good design only happens when the audience feels connected through empathy, ethos, and storytelling. At Zealous, she is a senior designer and works on visual and experience design for campaigns, events, and trainings, as well as, digital and print work.

Crystal Maloney
Crystal is an attorney, social media strategist, and social justice advocate. Prior to Zealous, Crystal worked on indigent defense cases in Oregon, provided legal support to protesters, and developed social media strategies to amplify justice issues and shift the narrative on how they are discussed. As Managing Director of Zealous, she leads Zealous’s multi-disciplinary work across the country with social justice practitioners, people directly impacted by the criminal legal system, organizers, and artists working to end mass criminalization. Crystal is also a member of Oregon Justice Resource Center’s Lawyers’ Committee, which provides amicus assistance to cases in Oregon that present significant social justice issues.

Cheryl Leahy
Cheryl is the executive director of Animal Outlook, a national nonprofit animal protection organization. She is responsible for development and oversight of investigations, litigation and policy, and effecting mainstream corporate and cultural change to shift away from animal products and reduce the suffering of farmed animals.

Andy McNulty
Andy has spent his career using his legal skills to lift up those who are marginalized. Whether that is a silenced protester, whistleblower fired for speaking truth to power, houseless person criminalized for simply existing, person of color brutalized by the police, disabled individual subjected to discrimination, or prisoner who has been mistreated, Andy has been on their side. He has never been afraid to stand up to those who abuse their power.

Andy has won significant verdicts at trial and obtained multi-million dollar settlements for his clients. He has achieved multiple first-in-the-nation, precedent-setting legal victories at the Colorado Supreme Court and Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Andy has used his writing and advocacy skills to help author and pass important civil rights legislation in the Colorado state legislature.

Andy is also a master at harnessing the media. He has helped clients push for social change and control the narrative while being featured by outlets such as USA Today, US News & World Report, Axios, The Denver Post, CBS News, 9News, The Colorado Sun, and Westword. Andy uses this unique blend of experience to solve every aspect of his clients’ legal issues.

Prior to founding Newman McNulty, Andy worked with Mari at Killmer, Lane & Newman, LLP. He started his career as a Jay A. Pritzker fellow with the American Civil Liberties Union. Andy obtained his law degree from the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and his undergraduate degree from Saint Louis University. While in law school, Andy worked for the MacArthur Justice Center and Southern Poverty Law Center. He is licensed to practice in both state and federal court in Colorado.

Will Potter
Will is a thought leader and award-winning investigative journalist whose work has focused on social justice and environmental movements, and attacks on civil rights post-9/11. He has been invited to address more than 200 universities and public forums around the world, including Harvard Law School, the University of Melbourne, and the House of Democracy and Human Rights in Berlin. He was the first investigative journalist to be named a TED Senior Fellow, and his TED talks on anti-protest laws and secret prisons have been viewed millions of times. Will has been invited to speak about civil liberties and authoritarianism before governmental bodies including the U.S. Congress, Australian Parliament, and Council of Europe. His book, Green Is the New Red: An Insider's Account of a Social Movement Under Siege, exposed the criminalization of nonviolent protest groups by the FBI, and was awarded a Kirkus Star for "remarkable merit." It has been described in Counter Terrorism Unit surveillance documents as “compelling and well-written.”

Zoe Rosenberg
Zoe is an organizer with the animal rights organization Direct Action Everywhere and an animal sanctuary founder. Zoe has also made national headlines for many high profile protests, including for chaining herself to the gate of a slaughterhouse in California, drawing attention to the use of the facility by California State University. Zoe was recently named Youth Activist of the Year by the National Animal Rights Conference in Washington DC and awarded the Paul McCartney Veg Advocate Award for her work as a young activist fighting for animal rights and founding an animal sanctuary. In 2020 Zoe graduated from high school (as Valedictorian) and enrolled as a student at U.C. Berkeley where she continues to fight for animals. She is currently facing felony charges for rescuing dying animals in Sonoma County, California.

Directions:
All events will be held in the Ricketson Jr. Law Building at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. The Ricketson Jr. Law Building is located at 2255 E. Evans Avenue, Denver CO 80208. 

Public access to the Ricketson Law Bldg. is on the west side of the building. (Campus Map)

Parking is available on campus - the most accessible lot is Lot 321 (Parking Info, Parking Map).

Signs will be located near Ricketson Law Building directing guests to the public-access and panel locations. Registration and food are located in the Forum, on the main floor of the Ricketson Law Building.