Michael Kuzma and Leslie James Pickering will lead a workshop on how attorneys, journalists, historians, or any person can file successful Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. This workshop will share tactics they have learned from the various FOI requests and appeals that they have submitted. Real examples of FOI requests, appeals, and releases will be used to demonstrate how to pry loose records from oft-times recalcitrant federal, state and local agencies. Anyone interested in open government issues won’t want to miss this one-of-a-kind presentation.
Great for librarians who are interested in learning more about obtaining available documents from the government and how this procedure works.
This workshop will be in person. The training center has WiFi access, so if you need a device, please bring one with you.
4950 Genesee St., Suite 170
Cheektowaga NY 14225
There is free parking in front and to the side of the building.
Michael Kuzma is a solo practitioner in Buffalo. He has long viewed the law as being a tool to bring about social, political and economic change. For nearly four decades, Mike has fought to make government more open and accountable through use of the federal and state Freedom of Information (FOI) laws. He has litigated a number of FOI cases against agencies such as the CIA, FBI and New York State Department of Correctional and Community Supervision (DOCCS). Mike has represented Native American activist and political prisoner, Leonard Peltier, Jalil Muntaqim, Occupy Buffalo and Leslie James Pickering.
Leslie James Pickering is a co-owner of Burning Books - a radical, independent bookstore in Buffalo. He's been a subject and/or target of several FBI probes into environmental and social justice movements since 1996, and has used public records laws to release thousands of pages of government files.
