Yale Law School Announces Journalism Fellows

Yale Law School will host five working journalists during the 1998-99 academic year. The Fellowships in Law for Journalists bring mid-career reporters to the University for a year to improve their understanding of legal and policy issues. Those who complete the course of study earn the Master of Studies in Law degree (M.S.L.).

The participants in this year’s fellowship program are Susan Dominus of New York magazine, Jimmy Golen of the Associated Press, James P. H. Kanter of The Cambodia Daily, Carolyn Lumsden of The Hartford Courant and Phyllis Plitch of Dow Jones News Service.

Thanks to generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, fellowships include a stipend for living expenses. In addition, Yale Law School provides full-tuition grants to fellows who return to journalism after completing their year of study.

The fellowships were established to provide journalists an opportunity to step back from the pressure of deadlines in order to learn about the law in depth. They receive the foundations of a standard legal education and take elective courses that focus on their areas of interest. Fellows study alongside law students, meet frequently with members of the Law School faculty for informal discussion and meet as a group with legal experts and speakers who visit Yale.

Susan Dominus began her career in journalism at Glamour magazine, where she was made an assistant editor in 1994. Dominus then moved on to write and edit feature articles for The American Lawyer magazine, where she also contributed to the columns “Bar Talk” and “Inside Moves.” Most recently, she served as senior editor at New York magazine, editing feature stories and columns, including the weekly “Intelligencer” and “Classical Music” columns. Dominus graduated cum laude from Yale University with a B.A. degree in English.

Jimmy Golen spent eight years working for the Associated Press, where he covered primarily sports-oriented stories and issues in cities as diverse as New York, Minneapolis, Baton Rouge, Buffalo and Boston. Golen has written about legal issues connected with the sports world, including stories on sports figures charged with crimes. He is a member of the Boston Chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Golen holds an A.B. degree in philosophy from Harvard University, where he graduated cum laude.

James P. H. Kanter has spent most of his professional career in England and Cambodia. He began at Britain’s Lime Lizard magazine, reviewing films and videos, and then wrote for The Independent and The Guardian of London. At The Cambodia Daily, based in Phnom Penh, he advanced from assistant editor to editor-in-chief and then editor-at-large. He earned a B.A. degree in modern European history from Columbia University, where he graduated magna cum laude, and holds an M.A. degree in international journalism from the City University Graduate Center for Journalism in London.

Carolyn Lumsden is an editor and reporter who has worked at Random House, The Associated Press and The Hartford Courant. Most recently she has written and edited editorial and op-ed pieces for the Courant, and her department has won national and state writing awards. She was named the Times Mirror Journalist of the Year in 1996 and given the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi award in 1995 for a piece on Connecticut’s juvenile justice system. She graduated cum laude from Boston University with a B.A. degree in English and earned an M.A. degree in communication from Stanford University.

Phyllis Plitch began her professional career at First Fidelity Bank in Newark, New Jersey, where she served as a municipal bond operation manager and an investment officer and registered representative. She returned to school to study journalism, and then worked as a reporter for the New York Daily News, the Hunterdon County Democrat, and The Trentonian, where she primarily covered business and government. Currently, Plitch reports for the Dow Jones News Service on the securities industry. She graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. degree in psychology from Montclair State University, and she earned an M.A. degree in journalism from New York University.

Applications for the 1999-2000 Fellowships in Law for Journalists will be accepted until January 4, 1999. For further information please contact Fellowships in Law for Journalists, Yale Law School, P.O. Box 208215, New Haven, Conn. 06520-8215.

For further information about this year’s fellows and to arrange interviews, please call Elizabeth Stauderman at (203) 432-4938.