Reporters Committee names Leslie Briggs Oklahoma Local Legal Initiative attorney

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press announced Leslie Briggs as its Oklahoma Local Legal Initiative staff attorney, adding capacity to the program that operates in five states providing dedicated pro bono legal support for local enterprise and investigative reporting.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Leslie Briggs to the Reporters Committee and to the Local Legal Initiative,” said Reporters Committee Vice President of Legal Programs Lisa Zycherman. “Her depth of experience as a litigator in Oklahoma will help us meet the growing need in the state for legal support for local journalists and newsrooms, especially those who are members of and covering the dozens of federally recognized tribes in the state.”

A Tulsa native, Briggs joins the Reporters Committee from the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, a nonprofit that fights for justice and opportunity for all Oklahomans, where she served as its legal director. In that role, Briggs developed legal strategies challenging the deprivation of constitutional rights for LGBTQ+ public school students, curbing breaches to the separation of church and state by the executive branch, freeing unfairly incarcerated survivors of domestic violence, and reshaping the criminal competency restoration system in the state of Oklahoma. She also worked on legislation reforming the criminal justice system, including the successful passage of SB1835, the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act, and co-hosted the Anthem award-winning podcast, Panic Button.

“I’m excited to join the team at the Reporters Committee, and work with the journalists and newsrooms who are telling the important stories that Oklahomans care most about,” Briggs said.

Now in its sixth year, the Local Legal Initiative currently operates in five states — Colorado, Indiana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee — to help local journalists and news organizations defend their rights to gather and report the news, gain access to public records and court proceedings, and hold state and local government agencies and officials accountable.

Since the launch of the Oklahoma Local Legal Initiative in 2020, Reporters Committee attorneys have represented local journalists and newsrooms in a variety of litigation matters, including cases involving access to 911 call recordings, COVID-19 data, tribal government records, and more.

Reporters Committee attorneys helped the McCurtain Gazette access police body-worn camera footage related to the death of a Choctaw Nation citizen after a confrontation with police. The New Yorker later highlighted the Reporters Committee’s support in a story documenting the Gazette’s efforts to hold the local sheriff’s department accountable — and the threats its reporters faced for doing so.

And through a successful lawsuit on behalf of The Frontier, Reporters Committee attorneys obtained access to jail surveillance footage, incident reports, and other records that revealed new information about the 2019 death of a Kiowa Tribe member following a violent struggle with jailers. 

Outside of litigation, Reporters Committee attorneys have provided pre-publication review assistance to local journalists and news organizations, including the filmmakers of “Bad Press,” a documentary film chronicling the long fight for a free press on the Muscogee (Creek) Nation reservation in Oklahoma. They have also compiled a guide that helps journalists navigate press freedom and information access in Oklahoma’s federally recognized tribes.

For more information on the Local Legal Initiative, go to rcfp.org/local.

The Reporters Committee regularly files friend-of-the-court briefs and its attorneys represent journalists and news organizations pro bono in court cases that involve First Amendment freedoms, the newsgathering rights of journalists and access to public information. Stay up-to-date on our work by signing up for our newsletters and following us on Bluesky, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and X.