Jay Bender

Representing the South Carolina Press Association and many of its member newspapers for 25 years, as well as the South Carolina Broadcasters Association for the past five years has been no small feat for Jay Bender. A 1970 graduate of the J-school and a 1975 graduate of USC’s law school, Bender is not only a practicing attorney, but also an adjunct professor for the Journalism and Law Schools.

Throughout his career Bender has pushed the limits. He has been a participant in litigation resulting in increased protection against libel and invasion of privacy claims, providing greater access to courtrooms and court records and using the Freedom of Information Act to challenge governmental secrecy.

According to Bender, his progression from journalism to the practice of law was a logical one.

“It was easy to integrate my journalism training with my law school education,” he said. “Essentially, both professions do the same things: observe, analyze and communicate.”

As an adjunct professor, Bender spends the fall semester teaching media law to journalism students and the spring semester teaching media law to law students. In addition, Bender has written two books on South Carolina media law and lectures frequently to press and governmental groups.

Although he could not quite pin-point a single favorite memory from his years spent at Carolina, he says something that did impact his life was the opportunity he was given to meet people, beyond the classes and faculty that he will have in his life forever.

Even though it seems Bender’s life is all work and no play, don’t be fooled. He recently retired from racing motorcycles and spent part of last summer riding cross country. Bender wanted to ride from the southern most point of the United States to the northern most point. He rode from Columbia to Key West, Florida, where he began his trip. From Key West he traveled to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. The cross country trip took him 11 days and the entire trip took 17, 16 of which were spent in the rain. Bender documented his travels to share with the world through a blog. You can read all about it at www.bendersbigadventure.blogspot.com.