Media Law Resource Center

Mailing Address:

(We are available in our offices only by appointment.)

Media Law Resource Center
266 West 37th Street – 20th Floor
New York, NY 10018

Phone: (212) 337-0200

Fax: (212) 337-9893

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

MLRC Staff

Staff Contacts by Service

Staff Bios

George Freeman is Executive Director of the Media Law Resource Center. He was most recently Of Counsel to the law firm of Jenner & Block. He is a former Assistant General Counsel of the New York Times Company, where he was at the forefront of numerous high-profile cases for the company and its affiliated businesses.  George is a well-known speaker on media and First Amendment issues. He is the William J. Brennan Visiting Professor at the Columbia Journalism School and also teaches at New York University and CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism.  He has led or participated in many media groups and is the founder and Co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Forum on Communications Law annual conference.  He is a graduate of Amherst and the Harvard Law School.  

Dave Heller is the Deputy Director of the Media Law Resource Center.  Much of his work focuses on MLRC's international programs and initiatives.  He has been involved with the programming and planning of the MLRC London Conference since its inception and this year worked on MLRC's first conference on Legal Issues Concerning Hispanic and Latin American Media.  He has written comments on UK and European media law reform issues, including the new UK Defamation Bill. He is a member of MLRC's International Media Lawyers Project (IMLP) which has worked to expand MLRC's membership to lawyers in developing countries.  He is also the editor of MLRC‟s monthly MediaLawLetter, and a regular contributor to MLRC's other publications, including an annual survey of developments in media libel and privacy law.

Jeff Hermes currently serves as one of two Deputy Directors of the Media Law Resource Center, where he focuses on digital media law issues. Jeff previously served as the Director of the Digital Media Law Project at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, where he led multiple initiatives to provide free legal resources in response to the needs of independent journalists and online media ventures. Prior to joining the Berkman Center, Jeff assisted a wide array of clients in First Amendment, media, intellectual property and Internet law issues as a partner in the litigation practice of Brown Rudnick LLP and later as counsel to Hermes, Netburn, O'Connor & Spearing, P.C. in Boston. Jeff has represented an international media network and its subsidiaries, major metropolitan newspapers, broadcasters on television and radio, Internet-based publishers and social media networks. He has frequently been interviewed by national and international press outlets, written for numerous publications, spoken at a wide array of events, and been invited to international forums to discuss digital media law issues. Jeff received his J.D. degree from Harvard Law School, and received his undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, from Princeton University.

Andrew Keltz is the Assistant Administrator at MLRC, where he began work in the Fall of 2013. Andrew is also an actor and singer. He made his off-Broadway debut with the Folksbiene in the Drama Desk nominated production of The Golden Land, and appeared off-Broadway with the Folksbiene as Fastrigosse in The Megile of Itzik Manger. Select regional credits include: Follies, How Can You Run With a Shell on Your Back? (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), Snow Queen, Jacob and Jack (Victory Gardens Theater), Yeast Nation (American Theater Company), Fiddler on the Roof, Bowery Boys (Marriott Theatre), The Boys from Syracuse (Drury Lane Oakbrook), A Few Good Men, A Little Night Music, Over the Tavern (Peninsula Players), and Biloxi Blues (Forestburgh Playhouse). Andrew has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the West Point Concert Band and the Jewish People's Philharmonic Chorus. Andrew recently acted as the lead in the film VORT where he portrayed Mendel, a Hasid in Brooklyn grappling with whether or not to stay within his community. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and a proud member of AEA.

Michael A. Norwick joined MLRC as a Staff Attorney in 2011.  His principal focus is monitoring and analyzing the law impacting digital media and publishing, focusing on First Amendment issues, defamation, privacy and intellectual property.  He is also responsible for coordinating the annual Legal Frontiers in Digital Media conference in Silicon Valley every May.  In addition, Michael monitors trials involving the media, and prepares MLRC's biennial Report on Trials & Damages.  He also writes and edits for several of MLRC's other publications. Prior to joining MLRC, Michael was a litigator for over ten years at the New Jersey law firm, Lowenstein Sandler, where he represented clients in a variety of commercial disputes, and specialized in the litigation of intellectual property, media, and defamation defense matters.   Michael has also served as Staff Attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey. Michael earned his law degree from George Washington University in 1997, where he was a member of the George Washington Law Review.  Prior to joining Lowenstein Sandler in 1998, he served as a law clerk to New Jersey Superior Court Judge, Leonard S. Sachar, in Union County.

Debra Danis Seiden holds an undergraduate degree in Home Economics and Education, and a masters degree in Library Science, both from Queens College, CUNY. She has worked in a variety of positions and settings: Serials Librarian at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University; Serials Librarian at CUNY Law School at Queens College; Catalog Librarian at Benjamin Rosenthal Library, Queens College, CUNY; Personal Assistant to Blu Greenberg, Author/Lecturer; Office Manager at the Jewish Educators Assembly; Production/Editorial Assistant at Jonathan David Publishers. She has been MLRC Administrator since February 2001.

Jake Wunsch is MLRC’s production manager. Before joining MLRC, he edited a weekly newspaper in New York’s Hudson Valley; managed a trade paper in Montana serving restaurants, taverns and casinos in the Western U.S.; and copy-edited a glossy on high-end consumer electronics. At MLRC, he designs publications, maintains the website, and fields member questions. He graduated from NYU in 2000.