Media Law Resource Center

Mailing Address:

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

Media Law Resource Center
520 Eighth Avenue
North Tower – 20th Floor
New York, NY 10018

Phone: (212) 337-0200

Fax: (212) 337-9893

General Email

MLRC Staff

Staff Contacts by Service

Staff Bios

Sandra S. Baron is Executive Director of the Media Law Resource Center and is also involved in the management of the MLRC Institute, its sister organization devoted to education on First Amendment issues. 

Before joining MLRC, and in addition to having a private practice, Ms. Baron  served as Senior Managing Attorney at the National Broadcasting Company, Inc.,  as Associate General Counsel of the Educational Broadcasting Company, WNET/Thirteen, in New York, and the counsel for Public Broadcasting’s American Playhouse.  She was an associate with Cahill Gordon & Reindel, also in New York. 

She serves (or has served) on various of media, internet and entertainment law  committees of the New York State Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the Forum on Communications Law of the American Bar Association and its Governing Board, and on the Media Law Reform Working Group of ABA/CEELI.  She is an  elected member of the American Law Institute and the American Bar Foundation. She has taught media law to journalism students at CUNY, New York University and other area graduate and undergraduate programs. 

Maherin Gangat is a staff attorney at MLRC.  Much of Maherin's work at the MLRC focuses on legislative issues, including shield laws, right of publicity legislation and anti-SLAPP bills.  Before joining MLRC, she worked as a corporate associate at law firms in New York and London.  She received a J.D. from the School of Law at Columbia University, a M.S. from the School of Journalism at Columbia University and a B.A. from the University of Michigan.

Dave Heller is a staff lawyer with 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.

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 that MLRC organizes in cooperation with Stanford Law School's Center for Internet & Society.  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. He has edited a weekly newspaper in New York’s Hudson Valley; managed a trade paper in Montana serving restaurants, taverns and casinos; and copy-edited a glossy on high-end consumer electronics which folded in under six months. At MLRC, he designs publications, maintains the website, and fields member questions. He graduated from NYU in 2000.

Lindsey Davis is the MLRC's 2012-2013 Legal Fellow. She assists with various MLRC publications, supports staff attorneys and members with research requests, and maintains the Brief Bank. Lindsey graduated from the University of Washington School of Law in 2012. She has BAs in Print Journalism and International Relations from the University of Southern California, where she served as editor in chief of the Daily Trojan.

Dorianne Van Dyke is the WSJ-MLRC Institute Free Speech Fellow at the MLRC Institute.  The Institute is a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit corporation created in 1988 to sponsor and support First Amendment education and research projects.  In her role as Fellow, Dorianne assists in overseeing projects such as the First Amendment Speakers Bureau, the Institute’s forthcoming Video Contest and the Actions Against Online Speech website.  She received a J.D. from New York Law School and a B.A. from New York University.