Jennifer Nelson serves as the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press’ director of pre-publication review & journalist support. She leads the organization’s pre-publication and pre-broadcast review practice, oversees the publication of and updates to its 200+ legal guides, supervises its legal hotline for journalists, and directs its newsroom legal training program.
Jen has extensive experience counseling journalists and newsrooms through pre-publication review for stories in print, on air, and in podcasts, and has guided documentary filmmakers through pre-broadcast review for projects premiering at many major international film festivals.
She also regularly drafts and delivers newsroom trainings on newsgathering, defamation, police interaction, source protection, and other legal issues.
Jen is also a former lecturer and co-director of the First Amendment Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law, where she developed a docket of litigation and amicus matters and lectured law students on current topics in media and First Amendment law.
Prior to joining the Reporters Committee, Jen was a litigation associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. Before law school, she covered breaking news for the City & Region section as an editorial assistant and freelance reporter for The Boston Globe.
Jen earned her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2011, and her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northeastern University in 2007.
