What am I doing here?

by Jay Bender

For 31 years I was an attorney practicing in the firm that is now known as Baker, Ravenel & Bender, L.L.P. For most of that time I have represented the South Carolina Press Association, and at one time or another, most of the newspapers in South Carolina.

For the past 10 years I have represented the South Carolina Broadcasters Association and some individual stations. For the whole of my law practice I have been an attorney for the Catawba Indian Tribe starting with the Tribe’s claim for the return of 144,000 acres taken by the State of South Carolina in 1840 through continuing efforts to secure the economic future of the Tribe.

So, what am I doing at the University of South Carolina? Teaching. At various times during the past 22 years I have been an adjunct on the faculty of the Journalism School teaching a law course for undergraduates. My first assignment was to fill in for the late, great Mark Etheridge during a sabbatical and then during his terminal illness.

About five years ago the USC Law School invited me to teach its media law course.

Now, I have accepted an appointment to the faculties of both schools to do on a full-time basis what I was doing previously on a part-time basis. I describe the move as going from being a lawyer who teaches to being a teacher who lawyers. I am also working on a project with Dr. Erik Collins to seek greater constitutional protection for commercial speech, and developing a distance education media law curriculum.

My road to this joint appointment is far from the traditional academic journey. But, I would argue, since that is what lawyers do, that my years of experience as a front-line lawyer for newspapers, broadcasters and advertising agencies gives me enough “street cred” to be able to describe how the abstract concept of press freedom has real value to working journalists and practicing lawyers .

So, what am I doing here? I am using my formal legal training and my experience as a lawyer to train future journalists and lawyers that the First Amendment is like an important muscle in that it needs to be exercised and nourished daily to remain strong. I am telling my students that I agree with the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart that the press, protected as it is by the Constitution, plays a structural role in our representative democracy, and we cannot allow that role to be diminished by governments or corporate accountants serving the interests of Wall Street.

I’m also training future journalists to know the language of the law and future lawyers to know the role of the press. Along the way I am enjoying the company of my very smart and accomplished colleagues and taking comfort in knowing that we have bright, energetic young people eager to be set free to pursue their professional callings as journalists or lawyers.