Press Release

September 24th, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BINGHAM MCHALE PARTNER SELECTED TO LEAD TEAM IN WEST AFRICA

In a pro bono capacity, Bingham McHale partner Dan Byron has been selected to lead a team of West African attorneys as they attempt to end impunity for violence against journalists, publishers and broadcasters and combat laws that limit freedom of expression. He will be working with the Media Law Foundation for West Africa based in Accra, Ghana. To that end, Byron will seek to: 1) analyze and prioritize existing cases relating to these issues, 2) develop and implement litigation strategy for these cases, 3) establish and organize a media defense bar for West Africa, and 4) seek change in the legislative and regulatory climate with regard to broadcasters, newspapers and journalists.

Byron will depart on October 1, 2007, returning December 1, 2007. The trip is being sponsored by International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP). The ISLP provides volunteer legal services by skilled and experienced attorneys to advance democracy and protect human rights worldwide. Through the pro bono work of legal practitioners, ISLP helps governments and citizens in developing countries with regard to these goals.

His efforts will impact the following West African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote D’ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

Richard R. Winfield, co-founder of the ISLP, said, “For Dan Byron to serve as an ISLP volunteer on this media law reform project represents an ideal match of an experienced and eminently qualified American media law expert with a compelling human rights need in West Africa. This expertise, moreover, is matched by the commitment to pro bono service displayed by Dan and his law firm.”

Byron was appointed general counsel for the Indiana Broadcasters’ Association commencing 2002 to the present. As such he has led the formulation of a new experimental project placing broadcast and print cameras in Indiana trial courtrooms for the first time in Indiana history. The Indiana Supreme Court recently granted approval of this project to start July 1, 2006. Byron is a member of the Media Law Resource Center located in New York and serving media companies in all 50 states. Byron is an active member of its National Pre-Publication Review Committee and its National Trial Committee. He also has served as First Assistant U.S. Attorney, Southern District of Indiana, 1968-1969. Byron is presently co-author of “Media Privacy and Related Law” for the Media Law Resource Center’s 50-State Survey, Indiana Law Section.

Byron, a graduate of Indiana School of Law, Bloomington, J.D., in 1962, has experience in the areas of media law, intellectual property and complex business litigation. Byron earned his undergraduate degree in 1959 from Indiana University, A.D., and his admission into the Indiana Bar in 1962. Bingham McHale, a multidisciplinary commercial law firm serving regional, national and international clients, is the fifth largest law firm in Indiana, and has offices in Downtown Indianapolis, Keystone Crossing, Jasper and Vincennes, Indiana.