News 2016: Students present public educational program on freedom of information

Students plan and present a public educational program on freedom of information law as a class project in Legal Skills III

Second-year law students Desiree Costa, Marissa Engel, Jennifer Flemister, and Sache Rockamore planned and presented a public educational program on freedom of information (FOI) law as a class project in Legal Skills III.  The students delivered presentations on public access to the courts under the First Amendment and common law, and on public access to the executive branch under open records laws.  Their presentation included recent amendments that updated the open records law in Massachusetts.

The program also featured a lecture on multistate FOI norms by Professor Richard Peltz-Steele.  Peltz-Steele teaches FOI law and is author or co-author of a casebook and state treatise in the area.  The students' professor in Legal Skills III is Patrick Francomano.  In addition to his teaching at UMass Law, Francomano is a practicing attorney and past president of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees Board of Directors.  He has been a Massachusetts school committee member for more than 20 years.