We have been involved in most of the leading media cases in the past two decades involving defamation, invasion of privacy, and rights of publicity, including the U.S. Supreme Court cases Bartnicki v. Vopper, Masson v. The New Yorker Magazine, and Harte-Hanks v. Connaughton. We have tried defamation and privacy cases in jurisdictions throughout the country.
The cases we defend arise out of every kind of content—from news reports, books, and periodicals to movies, music, and television to all forms of new media.
The firm has been engaged by virtually every major media company and has been appointed by leading media insurance companies to defend scores of smaller media businesses around the country in libel, privacy, and publicity cases. Every day, members of our team are engaged in trial litigation and appellate proceedings in state and federal courts.
We have successfully defended clients against SLAPP suits across the country. And in protecting our clients’ right to speak freely, we have persuaded courts to award attorneys’ fees to our clients under state anti-SLAPP laws.
Because we understand how to build a case and win at trial, we are regularly engaged to help clients avoid litigation through pre-publication and pre-broadcast counseling. Our lawyers serve as newsroom counsel to press clients and we staff 24/7 legal hotlines so our clients have access to legal advice—on deadline—in any time zone.
Our litigators have represented the media in many of the nation's most significant First Amendment cases. Our experience includes:
- Representing a nonprofit advocacy organization in multiple lawsuits challenging its ability to monitor hate groups in the United States
- Successfully defeated a defamation action brought against CBS News by a West Virginia pharmacist over an award-winning series of reports on the opioid crisis
- Defended The New York Times in a defamation lawsuit brought by a prominent cancer researcher at the Ohio State University
- Defended NBCUniversal in a defamation suit brought by George Zimmerman, the man acquitted in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin
- Succeeded in reversing a jury verdict against the estate of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle in a case brought by Jesse Ventura following the publication of Kyle's best-selling book American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History
- Defeated a SLAPP lawsuit brought by casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson against a small nonprofit that posted an online petition urging then-Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney not to accept Mr. Adelson's campaign donations
To view additional representive experience, click here.