Media & Communications Law
FisherBroyles attorneys have a national reputation for providing superior representation for our clients in areas of libel/defamation defense, access matters, privacy issues, employment, protected speech, copyright, intellectual property and other aspects of media and First Amendment law. Our lawyers are experienced in addressing the challenges of “24/7” news gathering and can respond expeditiously to unconstitutional attempts at prior restraint, subpoenas for raw footage, confidential source information, or to seek reporter or camera access to judicial and administrative proceedings.
Our attorneys have represented national, regional and local publishers and media companies, educational institutions, e-commerce and Internet platform companies, artists, authors, bloggers and other content creators. Our attorneys also have a longstanding reputation for successfully defending clients on a host of free speech matters.
The firm’s media and communications attorneys regularly counsel clients in connection with the day to day issues facing newsrooms and are quickly able to address pre-publication review, subpoenas, threats for injunctions and other newsgathering issues, including access matters involving state and federal open records laws. We also provide proactive training in libel prevention and other risk avoidance.
Through an aggressive motions practice, we have had considerable success in winning libel cases outright in the early stages of litigation before expensive discovery becomes necessary. For example, our attorneys have successfully used anti-SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) laws, the Safe harbor provisions afforded clients under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, and other aggressive strategies to dispose of harassing/frivolous libel litigation. Our attorneys also provide preemptive representation on privacy, online reputation protection/reputation management, copyright, trademark infringement and other intellectual property issues.