On August 8, LSKS partner Chris Beall gave a presentation on “Trademark Issues: Who’s Afraid of the Little Red ®” to the 2008 Program Directors Conference of the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. The presentation focused on the tricky trademark issues confronting organizations that engage in the certification of professional skills for financial planning practitioners. The conference was attended by directors, faculty and staff of professional education programs at universities and colleges throughout the United States.
AUGUST 8, 2008
LSKS partner Bob Penchina spoke on intellectual property issues at the Saratoga Institute on Racing and Gaming Law, presented by the Government Law Center of Albany Law School on August 5. The presentation covered application of copyright, trademark and right of publicity laws to the sport of horseracing and explored such issues as trademark protection for the names of race horses and racing silks and whether the tracks, horse owners or others own copyright in simulcast races.
AUGUST 5, 2008
On July 22, LSKS attorney Chad Bowman presented “Can-Spam Act Update: New Regulations Effective July 7, 2008,” a teleconference/webinar for nearly 200 marketing professionals that was hosted by Real Magnet. The hour-long presentation summarized federal regulations on email marketing, including revised regulations under the Can-Spam Act that were recently promulgated by the Federal Trade Commission.
JULY 22, 2008
A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has unanimously affirmed a ruling in favor of The New York Times in a defamation suit brought by a scientist who was investigated by the FBI in connection with the 2001 anthrax mailings. The scientist, Steven J. Hatfill, claimed he was falsely implicated as the anthrax mailer in a series of columns published by the newspaper. Following extensive discovery, the trial court granted the newspaper’s motion for summary judgment in 2007. The Fourth Circuit affirmed, finding that Hatfill was a limited-purpose public figure who failed to establish the requisite evidence of actual malice. The Times was represented in the case by LSKS attorneys Lee Levine, David Schulz, Michael Sullivan, Celeste Phillips, Ashley Kissinger, Alia Smith, Chad Bowman, and John O’Keefe. Click here to read the appeals court’s decision.
JULY 14, 2008
LSKS attorneys Gayle C. Sproul and Michael Berry are serving as Pennsylvania counsel for the Institute for Justice (IJ) and three Philadelphia tour guides in a federal lawsuit challenging the City’s new law mandating that tour guides receive a special license. The law makes it illegal to give a tour for pay in the City’s historic downtown area without first filing a written application, paying a fee, and passing a written examination. IJ and LSKS argue that the new law violates the tour guides’ First Amendment right to speak freely about Philadelphia and its rich history. Click here to read the tour guides’ complaint, and click here to learn more about the suit.
JULY 14, 2008
LSKS is “universally regarded as the top firm for defamation and libel cases” in the United States, according to the 2008 edition of The Legal 500-United States. Published annually, The Legal 500 is a comprehensive guide to “the best of the best” law firms. The Legal 500’s rankings are based on its surveys of thousands of law firm clients and attorneys. Click here to read The Legal 500’s commentary on LSKS and its attorneys (select the “Media, technology and telecoms” section and the “Defamation and libel” work area).
JUNE 12, 2008
LSKS was once again rated as one of the leading firms in Media & Entertainment law in Washington, D.C., and New York in the 2008 edition of Chambers USA, which also ranked several LSKS attorneys among the top First Amendment litigators in the country. Published annually by Chambers and Partners and billed as “The Client’s Guide” to “America’s Leading Lawyers for Business,” Chambers USA provides tiered rankings of law firms by practice area and location based on surveys of lawyers and commercial users of legal services. Click here to read the Chambers USA commentary on LSKS and its attorneys.
JUNE 12, 2008
On June 3 and 4, LSKS partners Chris Beall, Ashley Kissinger, Bob Penchina, and Steve Zansberg presented “Tackling Online Issues,” a two-day luncheon seminar in New York for LSKS clients discussing emerging issues in online journalism. The first day of the seminar covered intellectual property issues, including updates on copyright liability for embedded versus redirected content, open-source licensing principles for user-generated content, and emerging right-of-publicity concerns. The second day addressed content liability issues, including an update on Section 230 immunity, liability for collaborative journalism efforts, the law governing subpoenas for anonymous Internet posters’ identities, and handling online corrections. Our two prior seminars addressed reporting on national security and the new e-discovery rules in the context of litigation involving the media.
JUNE 26, 2008
Gayle C. Sproul, an LSKS partner, has been appointed to serve on the Legal Advisory Committee of the Student Press Law Center. The Student Press Law Center educates high school and college journalists about the rights and responsibilities embodied in the First Amendment, and supports the student news media in covering important issues. The Center also provides free information and educational materials for student journalists and their teachers on a wide variety of legal topics.
JUNE 11, 2008
LSKS partners Tom Kelley, Lee Levine, Bob Penchina, David Schulz and Michael Sullivan have been recognized once again as outstanding practitioners in their respective cities by Law & Politics’ Super Lawyers magazine, which conducts regional surveys of lawyers to identify those who have stellar reputations among their peers in particular practice areas. Mr. Kelley was identified as a standout in Denver in the fields of Civil Rights/First Amendment, Civil Litigation Defense and Business Litigation. In the magazine’s New York metro edition, Mr. Schulz is acknowledged as a top practitioner of First Amendment/Media/Advertising law and Mr. Penchina is recognized for his Intellectual Property Litigation practice and for his representation of clients in the field of Gaming, Entertainment and Sports. Messrs. Levine and Sullivan were included among the leading lawyers in the practice of First Amendment/Media/Advertising law in Washington, D.C.
JUNE 2, 2008
In a debate hosted by the Philadelphia chapter of the Federalist Society, LSKS attorney Michael Berry argued in support of a proposed federal shield law that would permit journalists to resist many efforts to compel them to provide evidence in federal court proceedings about their newsgathering. The debate – titled “The ‘Reporter’s Privilege’ vs. National Security: When Should Journalists Be Required to Testify?” – took place on June 2. Click here for more information about the event.
JUNE 2, 2008
LSKS attorney Michael Berry appeared on a panel entitled “Truth and Journalism” at Drexel University in Philadelphia on May 28. The panel discussed the role of the press in shaping public perceptions of truth by focusing on media coverage of a court ruling that the Pledge of Allegiance’s inclusion of “under God” is unconstitutional. The panel also featured a Drexel professor who recently wrote a book about the media’s coverage of the case and editors and a reporter from The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Legal Intelligencer.
MAY 28, 2008
LSKS is pleased to welcome five law students to the firm as summer law clerks. Kim Atura, a first-year law student at Harvard Law School, is a member of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review and the Harvard Latino Law Review. Tom Donnelly, a second-year law student at Yale Law School, is a member of the Yale Law Journal and the Yale Law and Policy Review. Shaina Jones, a second-year law student at Vanderbilt University Law School, is a pro bono intake volunteer for the Legal Aid Society and a member of the Thurgood Marshall Legal Aid Society, and has previously worked for Belo Broadcasting and NBC News. Jeff Kosseff, a second-year law student at Georgetown University Law Center and member of The Georgetown Law Journal, is an accomplished journalist; since 2001, he has worked as a reporter for The Oregonian, where he was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting and the 2006 recipient of the George Polk Award for national reporting. Ling Wu Kong, a first-year student at Boston University School of Law, has previously worked as a general assignment reporter for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and as an associate editor for The Earth Times.
MAY 19, 2008
The Media Law Resource Center has published an article by LSKS partner Steve Zansberg and LSKS associate Adam Platt entitled The Murky Wake of Roommates.com: When Does the Exercise of “Traditional Editorial Functions” Render a Website Operator Responsible for Third-Party Postings? in the May 2008 Media Law Resource Center Bulletin (Issue No. 2). The article, included in a compendium entitled “Digital Media: Articles & Comments on New Frontiers in Internet Law,” was published in connection with the MLRC’s “Legal Frontiers in Digital Media” conference held May 15-16, 2008, at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society.
MAY 15, 2008
LSKS partners Steve Zansberg and Chris Beall are the “cooperating attorneys” representing the American Civil Liberties Union and several other advocacy groups in a federal lawsuit seeking disclosure and judicial review of anticipated restrictions on protests during the upcoming Democratic National Convention. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado against the City and County of Denver and the U.S. Secret Service, seeks an order compelling Denver officials to process pending permit requests for parades and demonstrations on city streets. It also requests disclosure and court review of the anticipated regulations affecting expression at or near the convention site. Click here for more information on the lawsuit.
MAY 7, 2008
Katharine Larsen has joined LSKS as an associate. Ms. Larsen, a 2003 cum laude graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, previously worked as an associate for Clifford Chance LLP. She also served two years as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Joan A. Lenard of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Florida. Most recently, Ms. Larsen was a Legal Education Specialist with the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative in Baku, Azerbaijan. She is admitted to practice in New York.
MAY 5, 2008
LSKS has agreed to become a regular contributor to the Legal Risk Blog published by the Knight Citizen News Network. The Knight Citizen News Network is a self-help portal that guides both ordinary citizens and traditional journalists in launching and responsibly operating community news and information sites and that assembles news innovations and research on citizen media projects. The project is coordinated by Geanne Rosenberg of CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and Baruch College. Click here to access the Legal Risk Blog.
APRIL 14, 2008
With representation by LSKS, the Associated Press and The Denver Post prevailed in their effort to unseal the indictment of a Colorado man charged in connection with the disappearance of his six-year-old daughter in 2005. The news organizations challenged a ruling by the Arapahoe County District Court that would have kept secret the contents of the 60-count charging document against Aaron Thompson of Aurora. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the indictment is a “record of official action” and thus must be made public under the Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act. Click here to read the decision.
APRIL 7, 2008
Lawyers from LSKS successfully represented CBS News in its efforts to quash a subpoena by military prosecutors for outtakes of a 60 Minutes interview with a marine staff sergeant charged with killing innocent civilians in Haditha, Iraq. The court-martial quashed the subpoena, finding that the information sought was available to prosecutors from alternative sources. Click here to read more on the judge’s ruling.
FEBRUARY 23, 2008
In January 2008, LSKS partner Ashley Kissinger was appointed Co-Chair of the Women In Communications Law Committee of the American Bar Association’s Forum on Communications Law. Her term will expire in December 2009.
FEBRUARY 1, 2008
The Los Angeles County Superior Court granted LSKS’s anti-SLAPP motion filed on behalf of KABC-AM, talk-show host Doug McIntyre, ABC, Inc., and related entities, and held that the defendants are entitled to attorneys’ fees and costs. A Los Angeles County charter school, Academia Semillas del Pueblo, and its principal sued McIntyre and the radio station asserting claims for slander, false light invasion of privacy, negligence, tortious interference with a business relationship and incitement of others to make racially-motivated threats of violence against the school. McIntyre had criticized the school and its principal on his radio show in the summer of 2006. The court held that McIntyre’s criticism was constitutionally protected opinion.
JANUARY 10, 2008
The New York Times obtained a favorable jury verdict in a copyright infringement action brought by a freelance photographer who alleged that the newspaper had no right to publish approximately one hundred of his photographs on NYTimes.com. The two-week jury trial in Dallal v. New York Times Co. (S.D.N.Y.), concluded with a unanimous verdict for the Times on the issue of liability for uses of the freelancer’s photographs in the newspaper’s Internet edition. LSKS attorneys Bob Penchina, Tom Curley, and John O’Keefe served as trial counsel for the Times.
DECEMBER 5, 2007
Since LSKS opened its Denver office in May 2007, it has added another attorney and three staff members. Cynthia Henning, the office’s Legal Administrative Assistant, helped open the Denver office in May. Adam Platt joined as an Associate in July, Eleanor Henning joined as a Project Assistant in October, and Marla Kelley joined as a Paralegal in November. Cindy Henning and Adam Platt were previously at Faegre & Benson, and Marla Kelley comes to us from Holme Roberts & Owen. LSKS welcomes these additions to the Denver office team.
NOVEMBER 19, 2007
James Goodale announced that LSKS partner Lee Levine and Debevoise & Plimpton’s Bruce Keller would succeed him as chairmen of the Practising Law Institute’s annual Communications Law seminar beginning in 2008. The PLI program, which began in 1973, is one of the premier forums for legal practitioners to discuss and debate developments in the field of media law.
NOVEMBER 12, 2007
The Media Law Resource Center published How U.S. Law Navigates the Boundary Between Free Speech and Private Facts, by LSKS partners David Schulz and Ashley Kissinger, in the September 2007 Media Law Resource Center Bulletin (Issue No. 3) as part of a compendium entitled “Publishing in the Global Environment: Developments in European and American Media Law.”
NOVEMBER 1, 2007
In June 2007, under the auspices of the Kuwait Journalists Association, LSKS attorney Ashley Kissinger taught a two-day course on the international law of free expression to Kuwaiti lawyers, editors and journalists in Kuwait City. Ms. Kissinger also served as a panelist at a regional conference held in Kuwait City on “Media Law in the Gulf: Judiciary and Freedom of Press,” conducted by the International Research and Exchanges Board.
JUNE 29, 2007
LSKS was rated as one of the leading firms in Media & Entertainment law in Washington, D.C., and New York, and as one of only two top “national” firms in the field of First Amendment litigation in the 2007 edition of Chambers USA. Published annually by Chambers and Partners and billed as “The Client’s Guide” to “America’s Leading Lawyers for Business,” Chambers USA provides tiered rankings of law firms by practice area and location based on surveys of lawyers and commercial users of legal services. Click here to read the Chambers USA commentary on LSKS and its attorneys.
JUNE 18, 2007
Tom Kelley, Steve Zansberg, and Chris Beall, who are among the pre-eminent media law practitioners in Colorado, have joined LSKS as partners and opened a new office for the firm in Denver. The attorneys, who come to LSKS from the law firm Faegre & Benson, are joined in Denver by LSKS partner Ashley Kissinger, who formerly was resident in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office. With its arrival in Denver, LSKS now has four offices offering legal services to clients nationwide. Click here to read the Denver Business Journal’s report on the new office.
MAY 14, 2007
|
