ESPN legal analyst VISIT CANCELED

April 1, 2009

UPDATE: 4/3/09 – Unfortunately, Roger Cossack’s visit has been canceled, as his flight connections yesterday brought him from LA through Atlanta. He will be rescheduled.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — ESPN legal analyst Roger Cossack will share his experience and insight with University of Florida students and faculty at 11:45 a.m. Friday in Weimer Hall Room 1064.

“Cossack offers our students a unique perspective on the law, as a practitioner, analyst and professor,” said Sandra Chance, media law professor in UF’s College of Journalism and Communications and executive director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information.

Since 2002, Cossack has reported on how the law applies in various ways to sports as ESPN’s legal analyst. Prior to that, he co-hosted “Burden of Proof” with Greta Van Susteren on CNN. During his time at the cable news channel, he followed the disputed 2000 presidential election.

“To be live on television everyday discussing the developments and interviewing people having to do with that case,” he recalled, “was an opportunity very few people get.”

Cossack graduated from UCLA School of Law, where he later became a faculty member. He practiced law for 22 years. He argued a case — U.S. v. Leon — before the U.S. Supreme Court. He also reported on the attempt to impeach President Clinton and the alleged Duke University rape case.

“There’s a great tendency for people to forget that people that are accused of crimes aren’t always guilty,” he said.

His visit is sponsored by the Brechner Center and the UF’s Center for Governmental Responsibility in the Levin College of Law.

The college is a national leader in the professional education of future journalists and other communication practitioners. It offers undergraduate programs in advertising, print and broadcast journalism, public relations, and telecommunication production and operations; and graduate programs in science/health communication, media law, political communication, international communication and documentary filmmaking.