MFIA Clinic's FOIA Bootcamp

The federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and its state equivalents hold the government accountable to the governed by opening agency records to public inspection. Yet getting your hands on the right records isn’t always easy.

Learn how to draft requests, negotiate with agencies, and litigate your claims with Yale’s FOIA Bootcamp. ProPublica General Counsel Jeremy Kutner and New York Times reporter Eric Lipton will share tips and tricks for making the most of FOI laws with a Q&A to follow.

Dinner will be served.

Speakers:

Jeremy Kutner is general counsel at ProPublica, where he advises investigative reporters and their editors on everything from libel and reporter’s privilege to FOI record access. Before joining ProPublica as deputy general counsel in 2018, Kutner practiced media law at Ballard Spahr and was a First Amendment Fellow at The New York Times. Kutner has a law degree from Yale Law School and is a Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic alumnus.

Eric Lipton is a Washington-based investigative reporter with The New York Times. He has won three Pulitzer Prizes for his reporting on the flawed Hubble Space Telescope (1992), the influence of lobbying on American democracy (2015), and Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election (2017). His recent work covers Trump’s business dealings, American military support for the Ukraine, and sports betting. He previously worked at The Washington Post and The Hartford Courant after graduating from The University of Vermont with a degree in philosophy and history.