First Amendment students standing with Gregg Leslie in the Beus Center for Law and Society staircase.

First Amendment Clinic

Get the legal assistance you need

The First Amendment Clinic at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University was established to protect and defend First Amendment interests and to teach a new generation of lawyers how to help individuals stand up for their First Amendment rights. Our students interact with journalists and others to address the roadblocks keeping them from doing meaningful reporting.

Funded by an almost $1 million gift from the Stanton Foundation, a private organization established by longtime CBS president Frank Stanton, the clinic benefits both the community and the students who want to immerse themselves in promoting and defending First Amendment and press rights.

Who can benefit from the services of the First Amendment Clinic?

Speech affects everyone in some capacity, so anyone can benefit from our services. We help those seeking legal assistance navigate complex issues regarding freedom of speech, press, assembly and religion. Defending the First Amendment does not mean we take on causes we want to promote; instead, we will help any time any government body or official tries to control or limit personal expression. This is how the First Amendment should work; everyone is allowed to think and speak as they wish to ensure that all voices can be heard in a democratic society with an informed electorate.

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Leadership

Gregg Leslie

Clinic Director

Gregg Leslie, Executive Director and Professor of Practice, has practiced media and First Amendment law since 1994. He came to the ASU College of Law to start the First Amendment Clinic in 2018 and previously served as legal defense director and staff attorney with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping journalists with legal issues. Gregg Leslie serves on the governing committee of the Communications Law Forum of the American Bar Association and was a member of the ABA's Fair Trial and Free Press Task Force in 2011. He also served as chairman of the D.C. Bar’s Media Law Committee and its Arts, Entertainment, Media & Sports Law Section.

James Weinstein

Faculty Advisor

James Weinstein, Faculty Advisor, is the Dan Cracchiolo Chair in Constitutional Law at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, a faculty fellow in the Center for Law, Science and Innovation at Arizona State University and an associate fellow with the Centre for Public Law at the University of Cambridge. His areas of academic interest are Constitutional Law--especially Free Speech, Jurisprudence, and Legal History. He has written articles on a variety of free speech topics, including free speech theory, obscenity doctrine, commercial speech, campaign finance reform, hate crimes, and campus speech codes.

Aaron Baumann

Legal Fellow

Aaron Baumann is the Stanton First Amendment Fellow and an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law's First Amendment Clinic. He previously worked as a county public defender and at the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) Office of General Counsel, where he represented AHCCCS in their investigations of healthcare fraud. After graduating law school, he was a Presidential Management Fellow with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services.

Advisory Board

David J. Bodney

Senior Counsel at Ballard Spahr LLP, David J. Bodney is a litigator who focuses on media and constitutional law and is the founder of Ballard Spahr's media law practice. For over 40 years, he has defended print, broadcast, and electronic media in defamation, privacy, and related First Amendment law cases. In addition, he has significant experience litigating complex commercial disputes, handling matters involving intellectual property, Native American law, and governmental affairs issues. His practice includes actions to secure open government, block prior restraints and subpoenas of reporters by government and third parties, and handling commercial speech, intellectual property law, and voting rights issues.

Kathleen Brody

Kathy Brody, an attorney at Mitchell Stein Carey Chapman, is the former Legal Director of the ACLU of Arizona. She handles all types of criminal, regulatory, and administrative matters. Her practice focuses on defense in government investigations and handling complex matters where criminal law issues intersect with constitutional rights, civil liability, politics, and public relations. She has extensive expertise in legal ethics and professional responsibility and has served on the Arizona State Bar Ethics Committee and as the editorial board co-chair for the most recent edition of the Arizona Legal Ethics Handbook.

Mi-Ai Parrish

Mi-Ai Parrish leads Arizona State University Media Enterprise and is the Professor for Media Innovation and Leadership at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Ms. Parrish served as president and publisher of The Arizona Republic/AZCentral.com and market president at USA Today Network, where the team won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for “The Wall,” a multi-layered, multi-media examination of the southern border with Mexico. She is the chairwoman of board of The 19th* News, a board director of the Associated Press, vice-chairwoman of Banner Foundation board of directors, and The Poynter Institute, among others. She's served four times as a Pulitzer Prize juror.

Jon Riches

Jon Riches, the Director of National Litigation & General Counsel at the Goldwater Institute, litigates in federal and state trial and appellate courts in the areas of economic liberty, taxpayer rights, public union, and pension reform, government transparency, free speech, and school choice, among others. He has developed and authored several pieces of legislation. He has previously served on active duty in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps, clerked for Sen. Jon Kyl on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, and clerked in the Office of Counsel to the President.

Jared G. Keenan

Jared G. Keenan is the Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, where he oversees the ACLU of Arizona’s litigation docket and manages a team of four staff attorneys focusing on criminal legal reform, education equity, LGBTQ+ equality and immigrants’ rights in addition to other core civil rights and civil liberties issues in both state and federal court.

Paul Eckstein

Paul Eckstein, a partner at Perkins Coie LLP, focuses on civil litigation (including appellate matters) involving commercial, legal malpractice, constitutional, Indian law, and political law issues. He also frequently serves as a mediator and arbitrator and teaches Constitutional Law.

Benjamin W. Bull

Benjamin W. Bull is General Counsel of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation Law Center, a public interest law firm that litigates against sex traffickers on behalf of victims. He served as Chief Counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) for many years litigating religious liberty cases in trial and appellate courts. He is a noted constitutional law and trial attorney and a recipient of the William Bentley Ball Award from the Christian Legal Society for outstanding contribution to religious freedom. He has served in leadership and on the boards of directors of several prominent religious liberty organizations, and lived in Strasbourg, France litigating religious freedom cases at the European Court of Human Rights.

Jude Joffe-Block
Phoenix Freelance Writer

"ASU's First Amendment law clinic has helped me gain access to public records I would not have received otherwise. Meaningful accountability journalism requires access to legal counsel. This is a challenging moment for journalism, but one of the bright spots in the Arizona media landscape has been the creation of this invaluable clinic."

David Morgan
Independent Reporter

"ASU Law School's First Amendment Clinic has been a tremendous resource for my tiny local news operation, helping me to understand and use the law to expose severe problems and shortcomings in our local police-judicial-political systems."

David Bralow
Senior Vice President, Law First Look

"ASU’s First Amendment Clinic’s work was exemplary and its results in unsealing judicial records contributed significantly to the public’s understanding of the operations of U.S. Customs and Board Protection. The Intercept is a thankful beneficiary of this clinic’s important work."