Mike’s 20,000th Hotline Request

Mike Hiestand and Mary Beth Tinker in front of the former Newseum in Washington, D.C.
The staff of Texas A&M's The Battalion shows off their new award with SPLC Senior Legal Counsel Mike Hiestand and Executive Director Hadar Harris.
The staff of Texas A&M’s The Battalion shows off their new award with SPLC Senior Legal Counsel Mike Hiestand and Executive Director Hadar Harris.
Photo by Diana Mitsu Klos 2019 Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award honoree Grace Marion chats with Student Press Law Center Senior Legal Counsel Mike Hiestand and student free speech icon Mary Beth Tinker. Hiestand and Tinker were Hefner award recipients in 2014.

Since first joining the Student Press Law Center as a legal intern in 1989, Mike Hiestand has dedicated his career to helping student journalists and advisers across the country. Mike has led hundreds of training sessions and literally wrote the book on the Law of the Student Press, but perhaps his greatest impact has been through answering students’ questions and helping them fight censorship via SPLC’s Legal Hotline.

This spring, Mike surpasses answering his 20,000th request for legal help. Each one of those requests represent a student or teacher who relied on his expertise to guide them, often through very stressful circumstances.

As a thank you to Mike for all he’s done for student journalism over the past 35 years, we want to hear from YOU about how Mike made an impact on you or your students. Please submit your stories via the form below!

Share your Mike Hiestand story!

Your Information
Reflections


Photos (optional)

By uploading, you confirm that you are the copyright owner. Maximum file size of 35MB. 
Last Questions



Thank you! If you indicated that you would like to make a donation, we’ll redirect you after you hit submit above.