Your next assignment is a high-profile trial. Or the story of activists who are up in arms about a judge's recent decisions. Or that a grand jury is investigating a local sports figure.

How should you cover these stories without drowning in technical jargon or buying one side's spin on the facts? How do you turn the complexities of law — and whether the justice system actually works — into compelling stories that attract and serve readers and viewers?

This program is designed to help. We offer Newhouse School students a new course, guest lectures, paid research positions helping professional journalists, career and educational advice, a legal-journalism blog and other reporting and research resources.

The Legal Reporting Program is based at Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, and made possible by a grant from the Journalism Initiative of the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Producing quality legal journalism matters because legal news regularly leads front pages and newscasts. . . . Because law touches on the most wrenching social and political issues, from abortion to capital punishment to national security. . . . Because public knowledge of the justice system and the rule of law is a cornerstone of our democracy. . . . Because law, lawyers, and the courts are too important to hide in the shadows — or to be misunderstood.

LEARN MORE about new courses and research or reporting help now available at Syracuse University.