If you’re in the Boston area and interested in the legal side of debates surrounding the future of journalism, I strongly encourage you to attend the Journalism’s Digital Transition conference being held April 9 (next Friday) here at Harvard. It’s being put together by the Online Media Legal Network, an organization of lawyers who provide pro bono or reduced-fee legal aid to online journalism organizations. (It’s a project of the Citizen Media Law Project here at Harvard.)

You can check out the agenda yourself, but here are a few of the highlights I’m looking forward to:

— Having counsel from both GateHouse Media and The New York Times Co. on stage together, talking about the issues surrounding their important legal battle around aggregation last year.

— Sri Kasi, AP’s general counsel, talking about AP’s controversial affection for the hot news doctrine.

— Other smart people like our friend David Ardia, Boston media law guru Robert Bertsche, Lucy Dalglish from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Northeastern’s Dan Kennedy, Nieman Fellow and crowdsorcerer Jeff Howe, former Reynolds Fellow Bill Densmore, and — as your dinner speaker — Harvard Law prof and Internet freedom-fighter Jonathan Zittrain, one of only two men consistently called Jay-Z by friends.

And you’ll even get to hear me yammer on for a bit as the lunch speaker. I’ll be talking about the history of aggregation in journalism.

Early-bird registration has been extended until March 31 (Wednesday), so go register. Lawyers can get CLE credit, and students and academics can get cheaper (or free) registration rates.