David McCraw joined The New York Times Company in 2002. He currently serves as Vice President and Assistant General Counsel. He is responsible for newsroom legal affairs and serves as lead legal counsel for The Times’s freedom-of-information and court-access litigation. He has successfully represented the newspaper in lawsuits that led to the release of thousands of pages of government documents concerning emergency-response efforts in New York City on 9/11, the U.S. Defense Department’s secret campaign to influence public opinion during the War in Iraq, and unsafe workplaces.

Mr. McCraw was previously Deputy General Counsel at the New York Daily News and an associate at the New York offices of Rogers & Wells and Clifford Chance.  He also served as law clerk for Judge Richard Simons at the New York Court of Appeals.  Prior to law school, he was a professor of journalism at Marist College. (more…)

Professor William C. Banks is an internationally recognized authority in national security law, counterterrorism, and constitutional law.  In 2008, Banks was named the College of Law Board of Advisors Distinguished Professor at Syracuse University, where he has been a member of the faculty for over 30 years.

Banks is also the author and co-author of numerous books, book chapters and articles including National Security Law, Counterterrorism Law, Combating Terrorism (with Mitchel Wallerstein and Renee de Nevers), New Battlefields/Old Laws: Critical Debates from the Hague to Convention to Asymmetric Warfare, “Legal Sanctuaries and Predator Strikes in the War on Terror,” “Programmatic Surveillance and FISA – Of Needles in Haystacks,” and “Providing ‘Supplemental Security’ – The Insurrection Act and the Military Role in Responding to Domestic Crises.” (more…)

Mel Levine is a partner in the Century City and Washington, D.C. offices of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  He served as a member of the United States Congress from 1983 until 1993 and as a member of the California Assembly from 1977 to 1982.  He is a member of the bar in California and the District of Columbia.

Mr. Levine is co-chair of Gibson Dunn’s Public Policy  and its Crisis Management practice groups.  Mr. Levine’s practice  concentrates on counseling clients on the public policy aspects of complex domestic and international transactions.  His clients have included companies involved in a range of industries, including technology, energy, entertainment, health care, defense, manufacturing, construction and telecommunications.

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