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Bruce D. Brown

A former reporter, Bruce Brown focuses his practice in the areas of libel and invasion of privacy defense, copyright and the law of newsgathering. He also advises clients on pre-publication review, author-publisher agreements and website liability issues and regularly assists the Society of Professional Journalists on freedom of information matters. Mr. Brown is a lecturer at the University of Virginia Law School where he co-directs the First Amendment clinic and is an adjunct faculty member in Georgetown University’s master’s program in Professional Studies in Journalism. He has been co-chair of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Media Law Resource Center in New York. His recent libel cases include defense of two lawsuits brought by sitting judges and his policy focus has been on helping journalism companies make a profitable and sustainable transition to online publishing. Prior to joining Baker Hostetler, Mr. Brown was a federal court reporter for Legal Times and a newsroom assistant to David Broder at The Washington Post. Mr. Brown has been named one of Washington’s top media and First Amendment lawyers by Washingtonian magazine and has been named in Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers, Washington, DC. 

Mr. Brown’s media law experience has included:

• Obtained access to completed juror questionnaires in the Chandra Levy murder trial. In re: Access to Jury Questionnaire, The Washington Post, No. 10-SP-1610 (D.C. Jan. 19, 2012).
• Defended reporter sued by business mogul Dan Snyder for libel in Snyder v. Creative Loafing, Inc., et al., Civil No. 2011 CA 003168 B (D.C. Superior Ct. 2011) and obtained voluntary dismissal for the reporter with no payment to the plaintiff and no retraction or apology required from the reporter.
• Represented The National Law Journal in prior restraint action brought by beverage manufacturer POM Wonderful in Pom Wonderful LLC v. ALM Media Properties LLC, Civil No. 2010 CA 005533 B (D.C. Superior Court, 2010).
• Argued on behalf of a Baltimore-based newsletter publisher in the first Section 10(b) enforcement action brought by the SEC against a publisher of financial news and commentary to be decided by a federal appeals court. SEC v. Pirate Investor, 580 F.3d 233 (4th Cir. 2009).
• Represented a suburban Chicago newspaper in an appeal of a libel judgment won by the sitting Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court and in federal civil rights litigation brought by the newspaper alleging violation of its First Amendment and due process rights from the recusal of the Illinois Supreme Court from the case. Robert R. Thomas v. Bill Page, et al., No. 2-07-0435 (Ill. App. 2d Dist. 2007); Shaw Suburban Media Group, Inc., et al. v. Chief Justice Robert R. Thomas, et al., No. 07-cv-03289 (N.D. Ill. 2007).
• Represented a Boston daily newspaper in an appeal of a libel judgment awarded to a sitting Superior Court judge and in the filing of a judicial ethics complaint against the judge for threatening the publisher of the newspaper. Murphy v. Boston Herald, Inc., 449 Mass. 42 (2007); In Re Murphy, 452 Mass. 796 (2008).
• Represented news media clients in the leading Internet jurisdiction case in the defamation area by obtaining a dismissal for Connecticut-based newspapers and reporters sued for libel in Virginia on the grounds that the posting of news articles on websites did not create personal jurisdiction in Virginia. Young v. New Haven Advocate, 315 F.3d 256 (4th Cir. 2002).
• Represented a Denver daily newspaper in a lawsuit in which the Colorado Supreme Court abolished the tort of false light in the state. Denver Publishing Co. v. Bueno, 54 P.3d 893 (Colo. 2002).
• Represented client El Nuevo Dia, the largest daily newspaper in Puerto Rico, in a civil rights lawsuit against Governor Pedro Rossello and members of his administration for violation of the newspaper’s First Amendment rights. El Dia, Inc. v. Rossello, 165 F.3d 106 (1st Cir. 1999).
• Secured third-party standing for a non-media company related to El Nuevo Dia to bring a First Amendment claim against Governor Pedro Rossello. El Dia, Inc. v. Rossello, 30 F. Supp. 2d 160 (D.P.R. 1998).

In the area of pre-publication review, Mr. Brown has worked on biographies of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and musician John Lennon. He provided pre-publication counseling to the National Geographic Society for two books, a television documentary and a major magazine article all related to the discovery of the long-lost Gospel of Judas.

Mr. Brown’s published work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The American Lawyer, The Economist, USA Today, Legal Times, Communications Lawyer and The National Law Journal.

Mr. Brown’s recent Panels and Congressional Testimonies include:

• “Journalism and Media Law,” Moderator, Columbia Law School Career Panel (April 10, 2012)
• “Conflicts of Interest, Resolving Differences in Global Legal Norms: Shopping for Libel,” University of Virginia School of Law (February 10, 2012)
• “Disclosure, Anonymity, and the First Amendment,” University of Virginia School of Law, Keynote Speech (October 29, 2011)
• “WikiLeaks, the Espionage Act, and the First Amendment: The Law, Politics, and Policy of Prosecuting Julian Assange,” Washington College of Law, American University (January 11, 2011)
• “The Next Big Thing: Emerging Issues in Entertainment Law,” Harvard Law School (November 12, 2010)
• “Hot off the Presses! The Rise of News Aggregation and the Race for Information in the Digital Age,” Columbia Law School (October 26, 2010)
• “The Future of Journalism: Unpacking the Rhetoric,” Stanford Law School (April 30, 2010)
• “Privacy v. Publicity: A Look at the Competing Interests of an Athlete and Entertainer’s Right to Privacy versus the Media’s Right to Speak Freely,” Georgetown University Law Center (April 16, 2010)
• “A Tonic for The Times: Public Policy to Support Journalism’s Transition to the Digital World,” Yale Law School (April 14, 2010)
• “Saving Journalism from Itself? Hot News, Copyright Fair Use and News Aggregation,” Harvard Law School (April 9, 2010)
• “Preserving Journalism in the Online World,” Intellectual Property Law Section of the State Bar of California (December 7, 2009, Los Angeles, California) (December 9, 2009, San Francisco, California)
• Testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Libel Tourism (February 23, 2010)
• Testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, Libel Tourism (February 12, 2009)