Ethics in The Media

Freedom of Speech, Censorship, Hate Speech, Libel and Slander. American and Talmudic Law and Ethics

Presented by:  Michael Smerconish, Shanin Specter Esq., Rabbi Mordechai Becher and Ronald Coleman, Esq.

Speaker Bios:  

Ron Coleman is a Metro NY lawyer, active nationwide and focusing on the online use of intellectual property, free speech, technology and business law. Author of LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®, a leading blog on trademark, copyright and Internet law. Named "one of the world's leading trademark practitioners" in World Trademark Review's "WTR 1000" for New York City. Named in Super Lawyers as a "top rated civil litigation attorney in New York." Rated AV "Preeminent" by Martindale-Hubbell in New Jersey. Lead counsel for Simon Shiao Tam, whose efforts to register THE SLANTS as a trademark resulted in the historic 2017 free speech ruling of Matal v. Tam by the US Supreme Court. Partner at Mandelbaum Salsburg, a full service law firm in NJ, NY, and FL.peaker.

Rabbi Mordechai Becher, originally from Australia, is a senior lecturer of the Gateways Organization and an instructor at Yeshiva University.  He received his Ordination from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem and holds an MA in Medieval Jewish History from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva University, where he is currently pursuing doctoral studies. He taught at Ohr Somayach and Neve Yerushalayim in Jerusalem for 15 years, and also served in the IDF.  Rabbi Becher has answered thousands of questions on AsktheRabbi.org and presents a Talmud class on the Jewish Broadcasting Service. Rabbi Becher’s latest book, Gateway to Judaism, published by Shaar Press/Artscroll, is now in its ninth printing. He has taught in the USA, Canada, England, Israel, South Africa, Australia and Russia, and has conducted tours in Africa, Australia, China, Europe and Israel.

Michael Smerconish is the host of a daily radio program heard nationwide on SiriusXM’s POTUS channel. He is also the host of CNN’s “Smerconish”, which airs Saturdays at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. He is a newspaper columnist for the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer and his columns are routinely re-printed in newspapers all across the country. Mr. Smerconish is the author of seven books. His last book was a novel, TALK, is a novel for which the television rights were optioned by Warner Brothers. His seventh book was recently released, titled: Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right: American Life in Columns. Mr. Smerconish is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Lehigh University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and resides in the Philadelphia suburbs where he and his wife have raised four children.

Shanin Specter, Esq. - son of the late Arlen Specter, US Senator for Pennsylvania - is a founding partner at Kline & Specter. He earned his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an LL.M. with First Honors from Cambridge University and has compiled a lengthy record of professional accomplishments and accolades. He is a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, a group of the best 100 trial lawyers in the country. Mr. Specter was featured on the cover of SuperLawyers magazine, in which the independent rating service called him one of the most celebrated and respected catastrophic injury litigators in the country.  His legal victories have included newsmaking, industry-changing cases involving medical malpractice, defective products, medical devices, premises liability, motor vehicle accidents and general negligence.  The National Law Journal selected Shanin Specter as one of the top ten litigators in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, while other organizations have named him as among the best attorneys in the state and in the nation.  Since 2000, Mr. Specter has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and since 2015, he has also taught at UC Hastings College of Law, UC Berkeley School of Law and Stanford Law School.

CLE CREDIT: 1.0 Substantive, 3.0 Ethics