Fund the Future of Free Speech & Free Press

An endowment to ensure essential freedoms

For the last six years, under Mark Jackson’s leadership, Cornell’s First Amendment Clinic has successfully advocated for clients across the political spectrum to protect their fundamental free speech and free press rights. Now, you can ensure that the Clinic is able to expand its reach and extend its impact by taking on more cases throughout the country—wherever the right to free speech and a free press is being threatened. 

Join us as we launch a $1 million campaign to support the First Amendment Clinic, with the intent to endow The Mark H. Jackson Directorship upon his vacating the role—honoring Mark’s lifelong commitment to free speech and ensuring the clinic’s work lives on. 

Your gift creates a permanent foundation for the Clinic’s growth, supporting its essential work–not just today–but for a new generation of legal advocates and trailblazers.  

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Create an enduring impact

By supporting the endowment, you are permanently securing the Clinic’s capacity to: 

PROTECT free speech rights across the political spectrum

The First Amendment Clinic stands as a fiercely nonpartisan defender of of free speech and a free press. We take on cases regardless of viewpoints or beliefs where there is a genuine threat to fundamental Constitutional freedoms. Our diverse casework includes:

• Challenging library book bans and anti-protest statutes.
• Supporting students' rights to express conservative political viewpoints.
• Defending local journalists against costly defamation suits.

 EXPAND our reach: More cases, more defenders

The Clinic's resources and expertise are in extremely high demand. The endowment will provide the dedicated resources necessary to:

• Increase capacity to handle more pressing First Amendment cases nationwide.
• Provide valuable, hands-on training in complex Constitutional litigation to more students.
• Build a larger, more connected network of principled First Amendment defense attorneys.

ENSURE an informed citizenry

The health of local journalism is vital to democracy. Through its legal support of journalists, the Clinic is ensuring that the public has access to accurate and essential information needed to make informed decisions and hold public officials accountable.

FOSTER sustainable, impactful journalism

The Clinic provides a unique and holistic approach to legal support for journalists, including aiding in their access to information and helping them create sustainable media enterprises. Through its groundbreaking Local Journalism Project, the Clinic not only protects and defends journalists but also provides them with a full range of legal services to sustain their underlying business models, ensuring local news can thrive as an essential pillar of democracy.

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The Clinic in action 

"As someone who has litigated in this field for more than 35 years, I can say that the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic maintains one of the broadest and most active First Amendment litigation practices not just in New York State but in the entire country. It is making a major impact on First Amendment law nationally and locally. At the same time, it is providing hands-on, real-world training to its students that is invaluable to their professional development." —Michael Grygiel, Co-chair, Greenberg Traurig, LLP's National Media and Entertainment Litigation Group

“The First Amendment is central to our democracy, because without freedom of speech, thought, press, and assembly—the political freedoms that we cherish cannot be meaningfully exercised. That’s why I am so pleased that our First Amendment clinic is a national leader in training our students and also in direct impact for deserving clients.” —Jens David Ohlin, the Allan R. Tessler Dean and Professor of Law

“The Clinic had the most profound, most tangible effect on my readiness to practice law, from writing appellate briefs to orally arguing at the trial and appellate levels. Everyone in the clinic is so serious about the higher principles of First Amendment law that were at stake in the cases we took on.  We pursued it vociferously, no matter what our personal political viewpoints might be. That’s why the Clinic attracts the greatest diversity of students in terms of background and ideology, from all ends of the spectrum.” —Matthew Hornung ’24 

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Your support matters: Secure the cornerstone of democracy 

Free speech isn't partisan—it's the cornerstone of our democracy. When this cornerstone is under attack from all sides, we need bold, principled defenders more than ever.

Your gift today is the first step in establishing a permanent endowment that will expand our capacity to take on more vital cases, give more students transformative legal experience, and, most importantly, train the next generation of principled advocates for free expression.

Join us in protecting that vision—for today, and for years to come.

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Supporting our project

If you would like to make a gift via check, corporate match, or securities please visit: https://community.lawschool.cornell.edu/alumni/give/ways-to-give/. 

For more information on this project or to make a larger gift, please contact Lynne Haberstock at lth7@cornell.edu. 

As a registered student organization, we are committed to equal access to all of our programs and do not discriminate based on any protected identity status.