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Gayle Sproul, a partner in the firm’s Philadelphia office, has represented media clients in libel, privacy and related matters for nearly twenty-five years.  Her work includes defense of defamation and related tort claims, access and subpoena matters, and prepublication review.   Ms. Sproul has represented a range of clients including newspapers, magazines, local television and radio stations, and national television networks.

Among other matters, Ms. Sproul recently successfully represented ABC’s Philadelphia television station in gaining the dismissal of a defamation lawsuit brought by a local union and obtained summary judgment for CBS Outdoor in a claim based on the use of models’ likenesses in outdoor advertising.  She represents a coalition of local and national media as amici before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in Castellani v. Scranton Times, a case challenging the application of the Pennsylvania shield law in cases of grand jury leaks.  She has successfully represented a local newspaper in its successful bid to gain access to sealed family court records involving convicted murdered Charles Cullen; represented amici in Pitt News v. Pappert, in which the Third Circuit ruled unconstitutional a Pennsylvania statute banning the placement of advertisements for alcoholic beverages in college newspapers; won dismissal of a defamation claim against a Pennsylvania radio station by a Pennsylvania Superior Court judge in state court; has successfully moved to quash subpoenas in state court on behalf of Philadelphia television and radio stations in high-profile civil action; and has gained access to FBI audiotapes recorded in connection with a federal municipal corruption investigation.

Ms. Sproul was a founder and currently serves as the president of the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition and recently co-authored, with colleague Jeanette Melendez Bead, Privilege Paves the Way to Dismissal in Defamation Actions, Communications Lawyer, Spring 2007.  She has appeared as a commentator on Court TV and has lectured on media law in a variety of professional forums.  She currently serves on the Publication Committee of the Media Law Resource Center and was for four years the Editor of its quarterly Bulletin, and author of Implication in Defamation Cases: Measuring the Defendant's Intent, LDRC Bulletin, December 1999.

Ms. Sproul is a graduate of Douglass College (B.A. 1975) and Temple University School of Communication and Theater (Masters in Journalism 1980).  She received her law degree from Villanova University School of Law in 1983, where she was the Managing Editor of Student Work for the Villanova Law Review and was awarded the Order of the Coif.  Following law school, Ms. Sproul served as law clerk to the Honorable John P. Fullam of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.  Before joining Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, L.L.P., Ms. Sproul practiced in Dechert LLP’s Media Law Group and was for seven years a member of the in-house law department of National Broadcasting Company, Inc., at its New York headquarters.   She is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and the District of Columbia and in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second, Third and D.C. Circuits, and the United States District Court for the Eastern, Middle and Western Districts of Pennsylvania, the District of New Jersey, the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, and the District of Columbia.