Jennifer Borg '83 is an attorney who specializes in media and First Amendment law. She served as general counsel, vice president, and corporate secretary of her family-run publishing company, North Jersey Media Group Inc., prior to the sale of its newspapers in 2016. Currently, Borg is Of Counsel at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden PC and serves as a Visiting Lecturer at Yale Law School's Media Freedom & Information Access law clinic.

After considering several schools, including St. Paul's, Exeter, and Andover, Borg chose Hotchkiss, entering in 1980 as a lower mid. "I also visited one all-girls' school but quickly decided a single-sex education was not for me. Staying at my day school was also an option, and all the schools I looked at were excellent, but what tipped the scales was the size of Hotchkiss and the strong sense of community."

Not unique to Borg, Hotchkiss presented several challenges. "I was one of the few freshmen playing varsity sports at my day school, but arrived at Hotchkiss and played 3rds. It was humbling. I did play varsity hockey at Hotchkiss, only because it was the only girls' hockey team at the time. I was terrible and sat on the bench more than I played, but I loved my teammates and the sport. Fortunately, I was more successful at tennis and played first doubles on varsity with Chrissy Perry. We weren't close friends before that, but I came to absolutely adore her, and we were the perfect partners in terms of skill, temperament, and sportsmanship. Team sports offer many lessons, and I have found that in my professional life, those people who participated in team sports tend to work better with others and have stronger communication skills. Sportsmanship matters in life, both on and off the field."

Former Head of School and longtime faculty member, Rusty Chandler '53, was an influential force for Borg. "He was my tennis coach, a wonderful mentor as well as a great person. He helped me with my mental game and skills, and was more focused on that than winning or losing. Always supportive and enthusiastic, he uplifted the team's morale. His terrific sense of humor certainly made all those long bus rides back to campus tolerable, and I really credit our undefeated season to him. Walter Crain was another inspiration, as I was terrible in math and found it boring. But he took the time to motivate me and engage all the other students who were struggling. Mr. Crain exemplified excellence in teaching."

Brought up in a family where service to others was valued, Borg joined Hotchkiss's St. Luke's Society. "Service was embedded in me throughout my childhood. As a member of St. Luke's, I served as a candy striper at the Sharon Hospital and volunteered at a local school for disabled children. I also enjoyed the aspect of getting off campus, making my life less insular, and I got to meet and interact with great people who had no affiliation with the School."

From Lakeville, Borg matriculated at Denison University. "Though it was my back-up school, and I thought I would transfer, I ended up loving it and found the English Department to be very strong. I also had a wonderful professor who fed my passion for literature and my interest in social justice. I went on to share my Denison lesson with many of my friends' children over the years, after they were rejected from their first choices of colleges. There are many good schools that turn out to be the right fit."

For more than 80 years, Borg's family owned and operated North Jersey Media Group Inc., publisher of more than 50 newspapers and magazines - including the award-winning daily newspaper, The Record. Yet, it was not a given that she would work at the family company. "My parents never encouraged us to go into the family media business. They felt it was important for their children to work for other people and to spread their own wings." So, she decided to go to law school and matriculated at Columbia University, where she received her J.D. in 1990. "It was only after I got my law degree and practiced at a big firm that I felt confident enough to work at the family paper, knowing then that I was truly qualified for the job."

Ink is in her blood, and her strong background in English proved invaluable. "My dad is the consummate editor and corrected our grammar all the time. I thank Hotchkiss for teaching me how to write and for my love of reading. In my job, it is imperative to write clear, concise, and compelling arguments. Being a media and First Amendment lawyer is the perfect marriage of journalism and law."

North Jersey Media Group, owned by the Borg family since 1930, was one of the few remaining family-run publishing groups in the United States when it was finally sold. Being a family-owned company distinguished it from many other publishing companies. "Not having public shareholders allowed us to focus less on profits and more on quality journalism. It also allowed us to invest more generously in our employees. When a local newspaper is owned by a family that lives and works in the community it is serving, it does a much better job of covering stories that matter to its readers while helping local businesses prosper." This also makes the owners more accountable and responsive, and the family was frequently approached by readers while out and about in the community. The company was well-known as a civic and charitable leader, donating hundreds of thousands of dollars, volunteers, services, and in-kind gifts to local civic and charitable causes. In the wake of the tragic events on September 11, 2001, North Jersey Media Group was one of the first in the world to respond and establish a fundraising vehicle for the victims and their families. The Borg family was very recently elected to the 2019-2020 class of the New Jersey Hall of Fame, the highest civilian honor that the State of New Jersey can bestow upon one of its citizens.

As a strong advocate for open and transparent government, Borg was deeply involved with litigation under New Jersey's Open Public Records Act, helping The Record in its award-winning breaking news coverage of the May 2015 "Bridgegate" incident. "We lived by the credo that our papers' primary purpose was to serve as a watchdog of government and to hold public officials accountable. Through our investigative reporting, we uncovered and exposed corruption, wrongdoing, and incompetence. Democracy requires accountability, and accountability requires transparency. All too often public agencies operate behind closed doors. It was my job to help the reporters get access to public records, court records, and closed court proceedings so that they could shed light on the inner workings of government and our judicial system.

"Working with Shawn Boburg, the investigative reporter who broke the Bridgegate story, was certainly a highlight of my career. In subsequent reporting on the closing of access roads to the George Washington Bridge, he and another reporter were routinely denied access to emails among members of the Governor's office and the Port Authority, and also denied access to other public records. I filed several lawsuits to get reporters access, which revealed cover-ups and obfuscation. In 2017, I won a landmark case in which the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the paper was entitled to dash cam footage and the use of force reports in connection with a fatal police shooting. Helping get access to documents was a key function of my job and one that I loved doing. Additionally, I very much enjoyed the late-night teamwork in the newsroom. I would sit with an editor and a reporter massaging certain language in a story to minimize the risk of a lawsuit, while at the same time retaining its meaning. But I don't miss getting awakened late-night when a copy editor needed approval for a headline."

Though the media company was sold in 2016, Borg remains extraordinarily busy. "I really have three jobs now. I still work with my brother and father since, after the newspapers sold, we kept our real estate assets. We are currently developing the property of our old headquarters in Hackensack, NJ, into a mixed-use development. At the time we sold the papers, we had 1,000 employees and several thousand retirees, so I am also working with my family to manage our retiree benefit plans, which are still in place.

"As a Visiting Lecturer at Yale Law School's Media Freedom & Information Access law clinic, I co-supervise a clinic which provides documentary filmmakers with pro bono legal research and advice from the earliest stages of their films through the final editing process. Our recent focus has been on newsgathering activities such as the use of drones and the use of sources. Other topics have included libel, privacy, and intellectual property. It is a highlight of my week to be surrounded by such brilliant legal minds (both students and faculty members) and to help train the next generation of media lawyers."

Additionally, Borg serves as Of Counsel to Pashman Stein Walder Hayden, P.C., a NJ law firm that provides general legal services in the areas of litigation, tax, trusts, estates, etc. "I handle both transactional and litigation matters, but because of my prior newspaper experience, I mostly work with media clients on First Amendment issues and getting access to public records and closed courtrooms. Significantly, the firm recently established the Justice Gary S. Stein Public Interest Center, which is dedicated to various public-interest impact litigation and appellate advocacy that advances social, racial, and economic justice; protects civil liberties and constitutional rights; and promotes an open and transparent government.

"With the newspaper industry in structural decline, the few remaining local news outlets simply don't have the financial resources to pay for lawyers. Providing them with free legal services is more important now than ever. With the creation of the Justice Gary S. Stein Center, I am able to provide pro bono legal services to journalists. For instance, I hold a weekly call for members of the NJ Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists so that reporters can get on-the-spot answers to legal issues they are facing. This was particularly relevant during the recent protests when certain towns had curfews in place, some of which exempted journalists and others which did not."

Borg has been a Class Agent, served on the Alumni Board of Governors, and has lent her financial support to Hotchkiss. She explains, "Independent schools cannot survive without alumni support and service. When I was on the Board of Governors, though it was made up of a highly diverse group from different classes, areas, interests, and opinions, we were all there for Hotchkiss. Kip Armstrong '63 and Tom Edelman '69 were wonderful mentors for us and led by example. One of my greatest contributions was probably heading the Nominating Committee, when we proposed Katie Berlandi '88, who went on to be elected as the first female president of the Board of Governors. Katie proved to be a terrific leader in many, many ways."

The recipient of several honors, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Legal Leadership Award in 2017, Borg feels that "The best recognition of all is when a reporter thanks me for having his or her back when a reader complains about a story."

The School remains a significant part of her life. "A few classmates and I still say that we raised one another at Hotchkiss, and that is why we have such a special bond. We were teenage girls living together in a dormitory, and we leaned on one another for emotional support. We formed lasting and amazing friendships in Lakeville."