Attorney, Public Citizen Litigation Group
Paul Alan Levy is an attorney with the Public Citizen Litigation Group, a public interest law firm that is a division of the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen. Among the issues on which the group litigates are federal health and safety regulation, consumer litigation, open government, union democracy, separation of powers, and the First Amendment. PCLG litigates cases at all levels of the federal and state judiciaries and has a substantial practice before federal regulatory agencies.
After working as a law clerk to Honorable Wade H. McCree, Jr. (United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit) and Special Assistant to Solicitor General McCree, Paul joined the Litigation Group in December 1977 to represent workers in rank-and-file labor law cases, largely representing dissident union members in cases involving union governance. He has been there ever since, with the exception of a one-year sabbatical when he taught at Cardozo Law School. Over the years, he also developed subspecialties in some arcane issues of federal procedure such as removal jurisdiction, and the representation of "lawyers in trouble" from sanctions, contempt findings and the like (these days, though, as a defense lawyer, he files sanctions motions). He also pioneered Public Citizen's work on federal preemption of state law claims and objecting to collusive class action settlements.
He has argued scores of cases in United States Court of Appeals (three en banc). Moreover, he has argued four cases in Supreme Court of the United States, as well as writing briefs for parties in seven other cases. One odd aspect of his Supreme Court practice is that each of these eleven cases was decided 9-0 – win or lose.
Paul has specialized more recently in free speech issues arising on the Internet. He has litigated cases in state and federal courts throughout the country about the identification of anonymous Internet speakers. His amicus curiae brief in Dendrite v. Doe, whose approach was adopted by New Jersey's Superior Court Appellate Division, has become the model for other cases. His Internet practice also includes the defense of trademark and copyright claims brought as a means of suppressing critical web sites. His cases in this area, such as Bosley Medical v. Kremer and Lamparello v. Falwell, have established the right to create internet “gripe" sites that include the trademark names of companies in their domain names and meta tags. In Smith v. Wal-Mart Stores and McCall v. National Security Agency, he defended the rights of parodists to make fun of Wal-Mart's trademarks and the seals of the NSA and Department of Homeland Security. In arguing against the issuance of prior restraints in Bank Julius Baer v. Wikileaks, he had the key insight that the case had been filed without subject matter jurisdiction. For several years, Paul chaired subcommittees (on domain name litigation or on keyword advertising) of the American Bar Association's Intellectual Property Section. He currently serves on the Legal Review Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia.
A description of his work in this area was published in the Washingtonian Magazine as “Paul Levy, the Web Bully's Worst Enemy." It is accessible at http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/paul-levy-the-web-bullys-worst-enemy/. His work was also recently described in Hill, Stars and Gripes: Legal challenges over online reviews seek to separate fact from fiction, ABA Journal (July 2016), available at http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/legal_challenges_over_online_reviews_seek_to_separate_fact_from_fiction.
Partner, Clare Locke LLP
Libby is one of the country’s most sought-after libel lawyers. She is a trusted counselor and fierce advocate for Fortune 100 companies and high-profile individuals facing existential reputational attacks from the national media and other influential publishers, achieving remarkable results for her clients both in and outside the courtroom. Court watchers have called her “as good as they get,” “aggressive and not afraid to litigate,” and someone who has the media savvy to handle high profile matters in the public eye.
After co-founding Clare Locke LLP in 2014, Libby rapidly rose to national prominence for a highly-publicized multi-million dollar trial victory against Rolling Stone magazine about a fabricated gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity. In 2019, she was lead trial counsel and won a $26 million federal jury verdict on behalf of a successful North Carolina businessman who was defamed by a public company during a proxy fight. A commentator opined that “she was excellent in trial and she eviscerated the other side,” and the federal judge concluded that her vigorous cross-examination “exposed [Defendant’s] CEO as a non-credible witness.” A skilled appellate advocate and former federal circuit clerk, in 2019 Libby achieved a rare win against The New York Times on behalf of former Gov. Sarah Palin in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit arising out of a false and defamatory editorial. She is actively litigating matters against a variety of mainstream news outlets, including CNN and The New York Times.
Libby’s success in the courtroom gets her results in the newsroom. She regularly advises clients and their PR counsel in dealing with the national media in crisis situations, and some of her biggest wins are the false stories the public will never hear about. She has killed flawed articles, storylines, and broadcast segments in outlets including in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The National Enquirer, and on Bloomberg, CBS and The Dr. Oz Show. Libby has also vindicated her clients’ reputations by obtaining myriad retractions of false publications. Examples include securing a $3.375 million settlement and video apology from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a complete retraction of a Bloomberg podcast, a multi-article correction from The Chicago Tribune, and the removal of a paperback edition book from publication by Simon & Schuster.
Recognized as an expert in libel law and the First Amendment, Libby has been ranked as a Band 1 global defamation/reputation management provider in Chambers & Partners HNW directory every year since its inception in 2016, and a Band 1 First Amendment Litigator in Chambers & Partners USA in 2020. She has numerous national awards and accolades from the National Law Journal, including being named as one of D.C.’s 40 Under 40 in 2019. She is regularly asked to speak on issues involving the First Amendment, media, and reputation, including publishing multiple op-eds in The Wall Street Journal and appearing as a guest on Fox News, CNN, and ABC’s 20/20. Libby has also served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and George Washington University Law School.
Libby graduated from NYU’s College of Arts and Science with a degree in Politics and Economics, and she received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. After law school, she clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and then began her career in private practice at Kirkland & Ellis. Perhaps the accomplishment of which she is most proud, Libby is a mom of five. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia with her husband and law partner, Tom Clare, their children, and the world’s most spoiled Labrador Retriever, Gipper.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Judge Smith was appointed U.S. Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit by President Reagan and entered on duty in January 1988. He attended public schools in Lubbock, Texas, and graduated from Yale University, receiving a B.A. in 1969 and a J.D. in 1972.
Judge Smith was a Law Clerk to U.S. District Judge Halbert Woodward, Northern District of Texas, 1972-1973; with the Houston law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski as an Associate, 1973-1981, and as Partner, 1981-1984; and as City Attorney, City of Houston, 1984-1988. He was Chairman, Civil Service Commission, City of Houston, 1982-1984; and a Director, Harris County Housing Authority, 1978-1980.
Judge Smith lives in Houston and is married to Mary Jane Smith and has four children: Ruth Ann, Clark, J.J., and Brandon. He formerly was Chair of the Advisory Committee on Federal Rules of Evidence of the Judicial Conference of the United States. He assists LexisNexis/Matthew Bender & Co. in periodic revisions of several chapters of Moore’s Federal Practice.
Dean and Professor of Law, Widener University Delaware School of Law
Rod Smolla is Dean and Professor of Law at the Delaware Law School of Widener University, in Wilmington, Delaware. He was previously the 11th President of Furman University, in Greenville, South Carolina, the Dean of the Law School at Washington and Lee University Law School, the Dean of the University of Richmond Law School, the Director of the Institute of Bill of Rights Law at the College of William and Mary, and Senior Fellow and Project Director of the Washington Annenberg Program of Northwestern University. He has also been a faculty member at the DePaul, University of Illinois, and University of Arkansas law schools, and a visiting professor at the Duke, University of Georgia, University of Indiana, Denver University, and University of Melbourne law schools. As an educator, he has been an advocate for experiential learning, including greater emphasis on helping law students develop skills relating to counseling, problem-solving, negotiation, drafting, advocacy, civic engagement, pro bono service, legal ethics, and professionalism. He has emphasized diversity and community outreach and important institutional missions in higher education and legal education.
Smolla is a nationally-known scholar on matters relating to constitutional law, civil rights, freedom of speech, and mass media, particularly matters relating to libel and privacy. He is the author of five multi-volume legal treatises, all published by Thomson Reuters, which are updated twice annually: Law of Defamation; Smolla and Nimmer on Freedom of Speech; Rights and Liabilities in Media Content, Internet, Broadcast, and Print; Federal Civil Rights Acts; and, Law of Lawyer Advertising. He is also author of The First Amendment: Freedom of Expression, Regulation of Mass Media, Freedom of Religion (Carolina Academic Press 1999) (a law school casebook); and co-author of Constitutional Law: Structure and Rights in Our Federal System (6th Edition, 2010, with Dean William Banks). He is the editor each year of the First Amendment Law Handbook, published annually by Thomson Reuters. He was also editor of The Copyright Law Anthology published by Thomson Reuters. He is also the author of may trade and university press books, including Suing the Press: Libel, the Media, and Power (Oxford University Press 1986) (won ABA Silver Gavel Award Certificate of Merit); Jerry Falwell v. Larry Flynt: The First Amendment on Trial (St. Martin's Press 1988); Free Speech in an Open Society (Alfred A. Knopf 1992) (winner of the William O. Douglas Award); Deliberate Intent: A Lawyer Tells the True Story of Murder by the Book (Crown Publishers 1999) (made into a television movie by FX, with Timothy Hutton playing the role of Rod Smolla); The Constitution Goes to College (New York University Press 2010). He was editor of A Year in the Life of the Supreme Court (Duke University Press 1995) (won ABA Civil Gavel Award). Smolla has published over 100 articles in law reviews and other publications.
Smolla has served as Chairman of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Defamation and Privacy Law, as Chairman of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Mass Communications Law, as a member of the American Bar Association Advisory Committee to the Forum on Mass Communications Law, and as a member of the First Amendment Advisory Board to the Media Institute, as the Director of the Annenberg Washington Program Libel Reform Project, and author of the Annenberg Libel Reform Report that emerged from the blue ribbon task force on that project. He served as a Director of the Media General Corporation, and as a Director of the American Arbitration Association. In 2011, he was appointed by Governor Nikki Haley to serve as a Commissioner on the South Carolina Commission of Higher Education, which included within its mission the oversight of all of South Carolina's public universities and colleges, and licensure and programmatic approval for all public and private educational programs within the state.
Smolla has been and remains an active litigator. He has participated as counsel or co-counsel in litigation matters in state and federal courts throughout the nation, and is a frequent advocate, having presented oral argument in numerous state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States.
Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University; Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, UCLA School of Law
Eugene Volokh is the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution (Stanford), as well as the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA School of Law. He recently retired from teaching at UCLA, after 30 years there, and is now focusing on research.
Volokh is the author of the textbooks The First Amendment and Related Statutes (8th ed. 2023), and Academic Legal Writing (5th ed. 2016), as well as over 100 academic law journal articles, mostly on First Amendment law. He is a member of The American Law Institute; the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Free Speech Law; and the creator and coauthor of The Volokh Conspiracy, a leading legal blog founded in 2002 (hosted at the Washington Post from 2014 to 2017 and now at Reason Magazine).
Founding Partner, Lodestar Law and Economics PLLC
Josh is the founder of Lodestar Law and Economics, PLLC. On January 1, 2013, the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Wright as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). He is a leading scholar in antitrust law, economics, intellectual property, regulation, and consumer protection, and has published more than 100 articles and book chapters, co-authored a leading antitrust casebook, and edited several book volumes focusing on these issues. Commentators have recognized Wright as “widely considered his generation’s greatest mind on antitrust law,” and his academic work ranks him as one of the most cited antitrust academics in the world. Wright was also awarded the Paul M. Bator Award by the Federalist Society in 2014 to “an academic who demonstrated excellence in legal scholarship, a commitment to teaching, a concern for students, and who has made a significant public impact.” Wright also served as the Executive Director of the Global Antitrust Institute, the world’s premiere academic institute focused upon antitrust education for judges and regulators and has taught hundreds of judges and thousands of regulators from dozens of countries.
Wright’s practice focuses upon helping clients solve complex competition, consumer protection, and regulatory problems by providing legal and economic analysis, strategic advice and counseling, and economic expert testimony.
Partner, Antitrust and Competition, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Maureen Ohlhausen is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she advises industry-leading clients on complex antitrust and litigation matters, with a focus on high-profile cases. Sought after for her depth of experience on antitrust and Federal Trade Commission (FTC)-related issues, Maureen is known for her relationships with officials in the U.S. and abroad.
After finishing law school and clerking at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Maureen joined the FTC in 1997. She held a series of roles at the agency over the next 12 years, rising to the position of Director of the FTC Office of Policy Planning, where she led the agency’s work on e-commerce and headed the FTC’s Internet Access Task Force, which produced an influential report analyzing competition and consumer protection legal issues in the broadband and internet sectors. She then went into private practice at a leading telecommunications law firm, where she headed the FTC practice group.
In 2012, Maureen was confirmed by the Senate as a Commissioner of the FTC and was appointed Acting Chairman in January 2017, a role she held until May 2018. As Acting Chairman, Maureen directed all aspects of the agency’s antitrust work, including merger review, conduct enforcement, and all consumer protection enforcement, with an emphasis on privacy and technology issues. Under her leadership, the FTC won several influential merger challenges in court and reached a number of key digital privacy settlements.
To date, Maureen is the only FTC Commissioner to have received the Robert Pitofsky Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her contributions to the FTC.
Following the end of her term at the FTC, and immediately prior to joining Wilson Sonsini, Maureen was chair of the global antitrust and competition practice at Baker Botts, based in that firm’s Washington, D.C., office.
A recognized thought leader, Maureen is a frequent author and speaker, and is often quoted by leading print and broadcast media on antitrust, FTC, and privacy and data security matters. She has published dozens of articles on antitrust, privacy, intellectual property, regulation, FTC litigation, telecommunications, and international law issues in prestigious publications. During her tenure at the FTC and in private practice, she testified more than two dozen times before Congress, including before the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Antitrust Sub-Committee. She also testified before the Antitrust Modernization Commission.
President, Cass & Associates, PC
Ronald A. Cass is Dean Emeritus of Boston University School of Law (where he was Dean from 1990-2004), President of Cass & Associates, PC, former Vice-Chairman and Commissioner of the U.S. International Trade Commission, former faculty member at Boston University School of Law and the University of Virginia Law School, and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State. Dean Cass also sits as an arbitrator for commercial, international, and intellectual property rights disputes, and is a former United States member of the Panel of Conciliators of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. He is a member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States and has received seven presidential appointments, spanning Presidents Ronald Reagan to Donald J. Trump.
As a law professor, lecturer, and scholar, Dean Cass has been teaching and writing about a wide array of legal issues on topics such as administrative law and regulation, antitrust, constitutional law, communications, intellectual property, international trade, separation of powers, and legal process. He has published more than 160 scholarly books, chapters, articles, and papers, including a leading casebook on administrative law. Dean Cass has taught judges as well as students in schools of law, economics, business, and public policy and has held academic appointments in the United States, Europe, and Latin America.
In addition to his academic work, Dean Cass has participated in numerous important legal cases as an amicus, consultant, or expert, and has advised businesses, law firms, investment funds, and government agencies on a range of trade, antitrust, intellectual property, and regulatory issues. He has a broad range of affiliations with professional groups, and has received numerous honors, fellowships and awards.
Dean Cass is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Chicago Law School.
Attorney, Public Citizen Litigation Group
Paul Alan Levy is an attorney with the Public Citizen Litigation Group, a public interest law firm that is a division of the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen. Among the issues on which the group litigates are federal health and safety regulation, consumer litigation, open government, union democracy, separation of powers, and the First Amendment. PCLG litigates cases at all levels of the federal and state judiciaries and has a substantial practice before federal regulatory agencies.
After working as a law clerk to Honorable Wade H. McCree, Jr. (United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit) and Special Assistant to Solicitor General McCree, Paul joined the Litigation Group in December 1977 to represent workers in rank-and-file labor law cases, largely representing dissident union members in cases involving union governance. He has been there ever since, with the exception of a one-year sabbatical when he taught at Cardozo Law School. Over the years, he also developed subspecialties in some arcane issues of federal procedure such as removal jurisdiction, and the representation of "lawyers in trouble" from sanctions, contempt findings and the like (these days, though, as a defense lawyer, he files sanctions motions). He also pioneered Public Citizen's work on federal preemption of state law claims and objecting to collusive class action settlements.
He has argued scores of cases in United States Court of Appeals (three en banc). Moreover, he has argued four cases in Supreme Court of the United States, as well as writing briefs for parties in seven other cases. One odd aspect of his Supreme Court practice is that each of these eleven cases was decided 9-0 – win or lose.
Paul has specialized more recently in free speech issues arising on the Internet. He has litigated cases in state and federal courts throughout the country about the identification of anonymous Internet speakers. His amicus curiae brief in Dendrite v. Doe, whose approach was adopted by New Jersey's Superior Court Appellate Division, has become the model for other cases. His Internet practice also includes the defense of trademark and copyright claims brought as a means of suppressing critical web sites. His cases in this area, such as Bosley Medical v. Kremer and Lamparello v. Falwell, have established the right to create internet “gripe" sites that include the trademark names of companies in their domain names and meta tags. In Smith v. Wal-Mart Stores and McCall v. National Security Agency, he defended the rights of parodists to make fun of Wal-Mart's trademarks and the seals of the NSA and Department of Homeland Security. In arguing against the issuance of prior restraints in Bank Julius Baer v. Wikileaks, he had the key insight that the case had been filed without subject matter jurisdiction. For several years, Paul chaired subcommittees (on domain name litigation or on keyword advertising) of the American Bar Association's Intellectual Property Section. He currently serves on the Legal Review Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia.
A description of his work in this area was published in the Washingtonian Magazine as “Paul Levy, the Web Bully's Worst Enemy." It is accessible at http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/paul-levy-the-web-bullys-worst-enemy/. His work was also recently described in Hill, Stars and Gripes: Legal challenges over online reviews seek to separate fact from fiction, ABA Journal (July 2016), available at http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/legal_challenges_over_online_reviews_seek_to_separate_fact_from_fiction.
Partner, Clare Locke LLP
Libby is one of the country’s most sought-after libel lawyers. She is a trusted counselor and fierce advocate for Fortune 100 companies and high-profile individuals facing existential reputational attacks from the national media and other influential publishers, achieving remarkable results for her clients both in and outside the courtroom. Court watchers have called her “as good as they get,” “aggressive and not afraid to litigate,” and someone who has the media savvy to handle high profile matters in the public eye.
After co-founding Clare Locke LLP in 2014, Libby rapidly rose to national prominence for a highly-publicized multi-million dollar trial victory against Rolling Stone magazine about a fabricated gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity. In 2019, she was lead trial counsel and won a $26 million federal jury verdict on behalf of a successful North Carolina businessman who was defamed by a public company during a proxy fight. A commentator opined that “she was excellent in trial and she eviscerated the other side,” and the federal judge concluded that her vigorous cross-examination “exposed [Defendant’s] CEO as a non-credible witness.” A skilled appellate advocate and former federal circuit clerk, in 2019 Libby achieved a rare win against The New York Times on behalf of former Gov. Sarah Palin in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit arising out of a false and defamatory editorial. She is actively litigating matters against a variety of mainstream news outlets, including CNN and The New York Times.
Libby’s success in the courtroom gets her results in the newsroom. She regularly advises clients and their PR counsel in dealing with the national media in crisis situations, and some of her biggest wins are the false stories the public will never hear about. She has killed flawed articles, storylines, and broadcast segments in outlets including in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The National Enquirer, and on Bloomberg, CBS and The Dr. Oz Show. Libby has also vindicated her clients’ reputations by obtaining myriad retractions of false publications. Examples include securing a $3.375 million settlement and video apology from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a complete retraction of a Bloomberg podcast, a multi-article correction from The Chicago Tribune, and the removal of a paperback edition book from publication by Simon & Schuster.
Recognized as an expert in libel law and the First Amendment, Libby has been ranked as a Band 1 global defamation/reputation management provider in Chambers & Partners HNW directory every year since its inception in 2016, and a Band 1 First Amendment Litigator in Chambers & Partners USA in 2020. She has numerous national awards and accolades from the National Law Journal, including being named as one of D.C.’s 40 Under 40 in 2019. She is regularly asked to speak on issues involving the First Amendment, media, and reputation, including publishing multiple op-eds in The Wall Street Journal and appearing as a guest on Fox News, CNN, and ABC’s 20/20. Libby has also served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and George Washington University Law School.
Libby graduated from NYU’s College of Arts and Science with a degree in Politics and Economics, and she received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. After law school, she clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and then began her career in private practice at Kirkland & Ellis. Perhaps the accomplishment of which she is most proud, Libby is a mom of five. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia with her husband and law partner, Tom Clare, their children, and the world’s most spoiled Labrador Retriever, Gipper.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Judge Smith was appointed U.S. Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit by President Reagan and entered on duty in January 1988. He attended public schools in Lubbock, Texas, and graduated from Yale University, receiving a B.A. in 1969 and a J.D. in 1972.
Judge Smith was a Law Clerk to U.S. District Judge Halbert Woodward, Northern District of Texas, 1972-1973; with the Houston law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski as an Associate, 1973-1981, and as Partner, 1981-1984; and as City Attorney, City of Houston, 1984-1988. He was Chairman, Civil Service Commission, City of Houston, 1982-1984; and a Director, Harris County Housing Authority, 1978-1980.
Judge Smith lives in Houston and is married to Mary Jane Smith and has four children: Ruth Ann, Clark, J.J., and Brandon. He formerly was Chair of the Advisory Committee on Federal Rules of Evidence of the Judicial Conference of the United States. He assists LexisNexis/Matthew Bender & Co. in periodic revisions of several chapters of Moore’s Federal Practice.
Dean and Professor of Law, Widener University Delaware School of Law
Rod Smolla is Dean and Professor of Law at the Delaware Law School of Widener University, in Wilmington, Delaware. He was previously the 11th President of Furman University, in Greenville, South Carolina, the Dean of the Law School at Washington and Lee University Law School, the Dean of the University of Richmond Law School, the Director of the Institute of Bill of Rights Law at the College of William and Mary, and Senior Fellow and Project Director of the Washington Annenberg Program of Northwestern University. He has also been a faculty member at the DePaul, University of Illinois, and University of Arkansas law schools, and a visiting professor at the Duke, University of Georgia, University of Indiana, Denver University, and University of Melbourne law schools. As an educator, he has been an advocate for experiential learning, including greater emphasis on helping law students develop skills relating to counseling, problem-solving, negotiation, drafting, advocacy, civic engagement, pro bono service, legal ethics, and professionalism. He has emphasized diversity and community outreach and important institutional missions in higher education and legal education.
Smolla is a nationally-known scholar on matters relating to constitutional law, civil rights, freedom of speech, and mass media, particularly matters relating to libel and privacy. He is the author of five multi-volume legal treatises, all published by Thomson Reuters, which are updated twice annually: Law of Defamation; Smolla and Nimmer on Freedom of Speech; Rights and Liabilities in Media Content, Internet, Broadcast, and Print; Federal Civil Rights Acts; and, Law of Lawyer Advertising. He is also author of The First Amendment: Freedom of Expression, Regulation of Mass Media, Freedom of Religion (Carolina Academic Press 1999) (a law school casebook); and co-author of Constitutional Law: Structure and Rights in Our Federal System (6th Edition, 2010, with Dean William Banks). He is the editor each year of the First Amendment Law Handbook, published annually by Thomson Reuters. He was also editor of The Copyright Law Anthology published by Thomson Reuters. He is also the author of may trade and university press books, including Suing the Press: Libel, the Media, and Power (Oxford University Press 1986) (won ABA Silver Gavel Award Certificate of Merit); Jerry Falwell v. Larry Flynt: The First Amendment on Trial (St. Martin's Press 1988); Free Speech in an Open Society (Alfred A. Knopf 1992) (winner of the William O. Douglas Award); Deliberate Intent: A Lawyer Tells the True Story of Murder by the Book (Crown Publishers 1999) (made into a television movie by FX, with Timothy Hutton playing the role of Rod Smolla); The Constitution Goes to College (New York University Press 2010). He was editor of A Year in the Life of the Supreme Court (Duke University Press 1995) (won ABA Civil Gavel Award). Smolla has published over 100 articles in law reviews and other publications.
Smolla has served as Chairman of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Defamation and Privacy Law, as Chairman of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Mass Communications Law, as a member of the American Bar Association Advisory Committee to the Forum on Mass Communications Law, and as a member of the First Amendment Advisory Board to the Media Institute, as the Director of the Annenberg Washington Program Libel Reform Project, and author of the Annenberg Libel Reform Report that emerged from the blue ribbon task force on that project. He served as a Director of the Media General Corporation, and as a Director of the American Arbitration Association. In 2011, he was appointed by Governor Nikki Haley to serve as a Commissioner on the South Carolina Commission of Higher Education, which included within its mission the oversight of all of South Carolina's public universities and colleges, and licensure and programmatic approval for all public and private educational programs within the state.
Smolla has been and remains an active litigator. He has participated as counsel or co-counsel in litigation matters in state and federal courts throughout the nation, and is a frequent advocate, having presented oral argument in numerous state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States.
Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University; Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, UCLA School of Law
Eugene Volokh is the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution (Stanford), as well as the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA School of Law. He recently retired from teaching at UCLA, after 30 years there, and is now focusing on research.
Volokh is the author of the textbooks The First Amendment and Related Statutes (8th ed. 2023), and Academic Legal Writing (5th ed. 2016), as well as over 100 academic law journal articles, mostly on First Amendment law. He is a member of The American Law Institute; the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Free Speech Law; and the creator and coauthor of The Volokh Conspiracy, a leading legal blog founded in 2002 (hosted at the Washington Post from 2014 to 2017 and now at Reason Magazine).
Topics
President Trump Formally Prohibits Government Jawboning, But Will the Administrative State Comply?
The right to free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment is a fundamental tenet of...
Topics
Sauce for the Goose: The FCC Lacks Authority to Interpret Section 230 Post-Loper Bright
Frustrated by a perceived political bias against their views, several conservatives have called for government...
Topics
Four Things to Watch in Gonzalez v. Google
Many Americans have heard of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Not many know...
The Future of Libel Law
Paul Alan Levy, Libby Locke, Jerry E. Smith, Rodney Smolla, Eugene Volokh
Libel law leads two lives. Most famously, there is the life of presidential candidates and...
The Future of Libel Law
2017 National Lawyers Convention
Washington, DCTopics
Occupational Licensing and the American Dream
More than a quarter of the American labor force requires a state license to work,...
Bottleneckers: The Origins of Occupational Licensing and What Can Be Done About Its Excesses
Dick M. Carpenter
Note from the Editor: This article critically discusses economic regulation in general and occupational licensing in...
Net Neutrality Meets Regulatory Economics 101
Joshua D. Wright
Note from the Editor: This article reproduces then-Commissioner Joshua D. Wright's remarks at the Federalist...
Net Neutrality vs. Net Reality: Why an Evidence-Based Approach to Enforcement, And Not More Regulation, Could Protect Innovation on the Web
Maureen K. Ohlhausen
Related Links: Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Hearing on “Network Neutrality” (testimony of...
Antitrust and High-tech: Regulatory Risks for Innovation and Competition
Ronald A. Cass
I. Target Selection in an Innovation Economy A. Regulatory Power, Regulations’ Problems, and Antitrust While...