Trial by Media? Ethical Boundaries for Lawyers Speaking to the Press 2026

Paula Knudsen Burke is the Reporters Committee’s senior supervising attorney in Pennsylvania, leading the organization’s legal work in the state as part of the Local Legal Initiative. She joined the Reporters Committee in 2020 from LNP Media Group, Inc. in Lancaster. A licensed Pennsylvania attorney for two decades, Paula has worked in both the legal and media fields. In 2017, she helped launch The Caucus, a watchdog publication covering state government and politics. She also led the investigations and enterprise team as an editor at LNP Media Group, Inc., the publisher of The Caucus. Before joining The Caucus, Paula was the director of government affairs at the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, where she worked on legislative issues impacting print and digital news outlets in the state, including advocating for improvements to the state’s Right to Know Law and Sunshine Act. Paula has also worked in private practice and nonprofit law, starting her career as an Equal Justice Works Fellow. Paula is a graduate of the Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University. She also received her undergraduate degrees from the Pennsylvania State University, in both journalism and Spanish. Paula is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Bar/Press Committee and the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition.

Paula Reed Ward is a reporter at The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, teaches courses in journalism at Duquesne and is the faculty advisor to the University’s award-winning student newspaper, The Duquesne Duke. She previously worked for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she was a member of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting in 2019, and also was a reporter at The Savannah (GA) Morning News and the Pottsville (PA) Republican and Evening Herald. She is the author of Death by Cyanide: The Murder of Dr. Autumn Klein.

Mr. Wilkinson is a member of Cozen O’Connor in its Philadelphia office, where he concentrates his practice in commercial and appellate litigation in federal and state courts and in lawyer professional responsibility and liability matters. He is also a leader of the firm’s Legal Profession Services practice group. He is a past President of the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) and Pennsylvania Bar Institute (PBI). He is a former PBA Zone Governor, a member of the PBA House of Delegates, and is active in various other PBA and Philadelphia Bar Association committees and sections. Mr. Wilkinson is a past Chair of the PBA Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee, and is a past Chair of the Civil Litigation Section. He is also a past Co-Chair of the PBA Civility in the Profession Committee. Mr. Wilkinson is the co-editor of the Pennsylvania Ethics Handbook (5th ed. 2017-PBI Press) and has for many years edited ethics opinion summaries for publication in The Pennsylvania Lawyer. He is a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility. He was a Lecturer in Law on professional responsibility at Villanova Law School and has written and presented extensively on various civil litigation and professional responsibility topics. He recently completed a term on the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association (ABA) and previously served as the Pennsylvania State Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates. He is active in the ABA Section of Litigation and its Ethics and Professionalism Committee. He has served as a member and Board liaison to the ABA Standing Committee on Professionalism, and the Profession, Public Service and Diversity Committee. He is a member of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers (APRL). He also has served in various leadership capacities with the Villanova Law J. Willard O’Brien American Inn of Court. He is frequently retained as counsel to lawyers and law firms on risk management and disciplinary matters and as an expert witness in lawyer professional liability actions. He is a contributing author for the book entitled The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania: Life and Law in the Commonwealth 1684-2017. Mr. Wilkinson is admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court, and various other federal courts. He received his law degree from Villanova University School of Law where he was managing editor of the Law Review, and thereafter served as a law clerk in the U.S. District for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Riley H. Ross III is a Partner at Mincey Fitzpatrick Ross, LLC. He has been practicing law since 2000 and has extensive experience in the areas of civil rights litigation, federal criminal law, white-collar criminal defense, Title IX litigation, employment discrimination and general civil litigation. Mr. Ross is the 2023 recipient of The Honorable William F. Hall Award, presented by The Barristers’ Association of Philadelphia, Inc. and the 2021 recipient of the Champion Award, presented by the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Civil and Equal Rights Committee to an individual who champions for civil rights for all Pennsylvanians. Mr. Ross has been named a “2009 Lawyer on The Fast Track,” a “2010 Pennsylvania Rising Star,” and a Pennsylvania SuperLawyer® each year since 2014. Mr. Ross serves as President of the Board of Directors of the ACLU – Pennsylvania. He is a Member of the Board of Governors for the Pennsylvania Bar Association and is an appointed member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Judicial Evaluation Commission. Mr. Ross also serves on the Board of Directors of No Longer Bound and Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers. Mr. Ross previously spent 10 years as a Board Member of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, from its inception until 2019, and served as Secretary of the Board of Directors for the Defenders Association of Philadelphia. Mr. Ross was appointed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania to serve as Chair of the Third Circuit Lawyers Advisory Committee and on the Pennsylvania Criminal Rules Committee. Mr. Ross is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia. Mr. Ross received a B.S. in Psychology from Longwood College, a M.A. in Experimental Psychology from Western Kentucky University and a J.D. from the University of Virginia. After law school, Mr. Ross clerked for the Honorable James C. Cacheris, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia.