Media & the Law Seminar

Program Overview

Lies and propaganda are nothing new. But the ability to spread deliberately false information far and wide is at an all-time high. “Deepfake” videos, AI-generated content, anonymous online trolls, and conspiracy theorists are flourishing on social media and the internet, wreaking havoc on civic discourse and the public’s ability to discern fact from fiction. At the same time, the First Amendment provides some degree of protection for false speech and even outright lies, creating friction between the search for the truth, on the one hand, and the need to protect expression on the other. All of this is unfolding amid escalating attempts from those in power to discredit critical reporting by news media as “fake news” and to cast truth-seeking journalists as “enemies of the people.” 

Join us for our annual Media and the Law Seminar, where we will convene a panel of legal experts and thought leaders to discuss topics including the impact of a second Trump term on the news media and actual-malice standard, current legal strategies for combating disinformation, emerging IT platforms to address disinformation, the potential for legislation or modifications in jurisprudence to help adapt to the surge of disinformation, ethical pitfalls attorneys face in fighting for the truth and more.

Agenda
 

Thursday, May 8

3:30 p.m. | Registration opens

4:00 p.m.-5:45 p.m. | Bonus Session - Bankruptcy and Media Law: Everything You Didn’t Know You Need to Know

Media attorneys typically aren’t known for dipping their toes into the arcane world of bankruptcy law. But filing for bankruptcy is a watershed moment in any litigation, including libel, copyright, trademark, or privacy cases. Several high-profile bankruptcies involving media defendants, including Alex Jones, The Gateway Pundit, and Gawker Media, have thrust defense lawyers into the bankruptcy world. What do you need to know? This panel will provide a foundational knowledge of:

• The bankruptcy process and how it can impact media litigation
• How automatic stays work
• Whether certain damages are dischargeable How to work with bankruptcy counsel to evaluate the strategy of appealing adverse judgments
• Key issues that arise when a plaintiff, a defendant, or a co-defendant file for bankruptcy in the course of pending litigation

Moderator:
Carol LoCicero, Managing Partner
Thomas & LoCicero PL
Tampa, Florida

Panelists:
Patricia Hamilton, Attorneys at Law
Stevens & Brand LLP Topeka, Kansas

Lynn Rzonca, Partner and Chair of the IP Department
Ballard Spahr
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Stephen Ware, Frank Edwards Tyler Distinguished Professor of Law
University of Kansas School of Law
Lawrence, Kansas

6:00 p.m. | Speaker’s Social Event

AXIS Insurance offices - 4622 Pennsylvania Ave, Suite 1200, Kansas City, Missouri

Please join us after the Thursday bonus session at AXIS Insurance’s office overlooking the Country Club Plaza for drinks and hors d’oeuvres. All seminar panelists and attendees are invited to join.

Friday, May 9

7 a.m. | Breakfast and Registration

8:00 a.m. | Welcome and Overview of Topics

Pat Groshong, AVP, Cyber Claims Director, Berkley Cyber Risk Solutions
Media and the Law Committee Co-Chair

Eric Weslander, Attorney & Counselor at Law, Stevens & Brand LLP
Media and the Law Program Chair

Seminar Moderator: Chad Milton, Partner
Media Risk Consultants LLC

8:10 a.m. | Panel 1 - The Law vs. Disinformation: An Uneven Playing Field?

The law of defamation aims to compensate plaintiffs for actual injuries to reputation, and centers on a judicial search for the truth—or at least the “substantial” truth. But recent high-profile defamation cases, including those involving Georgia election workers and Sandy Hook families, have called into question the effectiveness of seeking to hold speakers accountable for knowing falsehoods. Meanwhile, case law recognizes that false speech is not per se unprotected, and that the government plays a limited role in sorting truth from fiction. Join us to discuss:

• What exactly is “disinformation,” and how is it impacting our legal system?
• When a defendant seeks to deliberately spread false information, just how powerful of a weapon is a defamation suit as a means of correcting falsehoods in the “marketplace of ideas?”
• What are the best legal strategies, within the bounds of the First Amendment, for helping bring the truth to light?

Moderator:
Laura Handman, Partner
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Washington, D.C.

Panelists:
Robert Corn-Revere, Chief Counsel
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)
Washington, D.C.

Matthew Leish, Partner
Klaris Law
New York, New York

9:00 a.m. | Panel 1 Q&A

9:10 a.m. | Panel 2 - Legislating the Search for the Truth

As “deepfake” technologies and AI proliferate, lawmakers are looking for ways to limit the potential for bad actors to spread lies, appropriate individuals’ likeness/identity, and create virtual doppelgangers. Meanwhile, the broad immunity granted to online platforms by Section 230 is a constant subject of public debate. Join us to discuss:

• What are the current efforts to regulate disinformation?
• What are the trends shaping this area in years to come?
• Is legislation the most optimal way to deal with the spread of disinformation?

Moderator:
Jane Kirtley, Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law; Director, Silha Center
Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Panelists:
Olivier Sylvain, Professor of Law
Fordham Law School
New York, New York

Erik Bierbauer, Senior Vice President, Litigation
NBCUniversal Media, LLC
New York, New York

Christine Walz, Partner
Holland & Knight LLP
New York, New York

10:00 a.m. | Panel 2 Q&A

10:15 a.m. | Break

10:30 a.m. | Panel 3 - Trump 2.0 and the Press

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump and his supporters took an increasingly adversarial position on news organizations and reporters. Among other things, they made threats of aggressive litigation, the pursuit of confidential information through subpoenas, regulatory restrictions, and the prosecution of reporters. Outside of Washington, there are

concerns that Trump followers will take similarly adversarial actions. This panel will examine the early days of the second Trump administration to see if those threats have been realized, and will address issues such as these:

• Do new litigations break new ground?
• Do new libel claims seem designed to test Supreme Court support for New York Times Co. v. Sullivan?
• How do these challenges affect media law?
• Do these threats present political and legal issues that are best handled by a subset of media lawyers?
• How are local challenges best defended?
• How do media lawyers advise their clients about adapting editorial and business practices to the circumstances?

Moderator: 
Lee Levine
Ballard Spahr
Corolla, NC

Panelists:
Dale Cohen
Documentary and Film Law Clinic, UCLA and Special Counsel for Frontline
Los Angeles, California

David Bralow, Chief Legal Officer
The Intercept
New York, New York

Dana McElroy, Partner
Thomas & LoCicero
Fort Lauderdale, Florida

11:20 a.m. | Panel 3 Q&A

11:30 a.m. | Luncheon Address - NO CLEs

Sarah Smarsh is a journalist who has reported for the New York Times, Harper’s, the Guardian, and many other publications. A former English professor and grant-writer for social service agencies, Sarah aims for all her work to have a backbone of civic responsibility.

Her first book, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, was an instant New York Times bestseller, a finalist for the National Book Award and the Kirkus Prize, the winner of the Chicago Tribune Literary Prize, and a best-books-of-the-year selection by President Barack Obama. Her 2020 book She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named a must-read book by TIME Magazine. Sarah’s latest, Bone of the Bone: Essays on America from a Daughter of the Working Class, was published in 2024. In Bone of the Bone, Sarah brings her graceful storytelling and incisive critique to the challenges that define our times—class division, political fissures, gender inequality, environmental crisis, media bias, the rural-urban gulf.

Sarah is a regular political commentator in national media and has spoken internationally on poverty, rural issues, and cultural divides at venues ranging from small-town libraries to Sydney Opera House. A former writing professor, Sarah has served as a Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a Pritzker Fellow at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. In 2019, Sarah released a podcast entitled The Homecomers, which focuses on how a national blind spot toward rural and working-class America is driving misleading headlines, broken politics, and dangerous fissures in our social fabric. The podcast showcases stories of people who, as residents or advocates, remain committed to their complex, embattled homes.

Sarah is currently at work on a book about the endangered tallgrass prairie ecosystem, which will be published by Scribner in 2026. She lives in rural Kansas.

1:00 p.m. | Panel 4 - Reporting the News of Tomorrow

AI is impacting every aspect of the world around us, including news reporting. We explore what journalism schools are teaching tomorrow's reporters about ethical and effective use of AI, as well as how today's journalists are already implementing AI. We will seek the opinion of counsel as to potential legal pitfalls to these efforts and how best to defend them if challenged in court.

Questions presented:

• How should GenAI be used in Journalism?
• What are the benefits?
• What are the risks?
• How will it evolve in the near future?
• How will the current legal framework apply to these emerging practices?

Moderator:
Jennifer Dukarski
Butzel Long
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Panelists:
Adi Kamdar, Associate
Morrison Foerster
Washington, D.C.

Amy Kristin Sanders, John & Ann Curley Chair in First Amendment
Penn State University
University Park, Pennsylvania

Ayan Mittra, Senior Managing Editor, Local News
The Texas Tribune
Austin, Texas

1:50 p.m. | Panel 4 Q & A

2:00 p.m. | Break

2:15 p.m. | Panel 5 - The Anti-Disinformation Toolkit – The Pros and Cons of Fact-Checking

A variety of organizations have taken up the cause of online fact-checking and fighting disinformation in the name of democracy—and have themselves come under attack. Meanwhile, creative minds are working on IT platforms to address disinformation, smoke out “deepfakes”, and help the public discern fact from fiction, including using AI to fight AI. This panel will provide insight into the advantages of using technology to combat disinformation, as well as shed light on its limitations, and the push back that efforts to identify and label disinformation are receiving. Join us to discuss:

• What AI technology Is available for use in identifying deep fakes and others forms of misinformation?
• What are the strengths and limitations of these technologies?
• What are the legal perils that confront users who erroneously identify content as misinformation?
• What are more traditional avenues journalists can use to identify misinformation?
• How has the law been used to silence organizations that are actively combating misinformation?

Moderator:
Max Mishkin, Partner
Ballard Spahr
Washington, D.C.

Panelists:
Laura Edelson, Ph.D.
Northeastern University
Boston, Massachusetts

Alex Abdo, Litigation Director
Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University
New York, New York

3:05 p.m. | Panel 5 Q & A

3:15 p.m. | Panel 6 - Set Free by the Truth? Ethical Pitfalls Disinformation Presents for Attorneys (Ethics)

In recent months the ABA has called for attorneys to play an active role in fighting disinformation. ABA President wrote in a July commentary, “When citizens are repeatedly exposed to false narratives online, it deepens community divisions, heightens tensions and can prompt defensive or violent responses against perceived threats to their safety or values. This fundamentally undermines democratic processes by distorting public discourse and derailing the informed decision-making crucial to a healthy democracy.” These concerns are only heightened with the overlay of the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence in the practice of law. Join us to discuss:

• Where does advocacy cross the line into misinformation?
• What ethical concerns are presented for attorneys spreading misinformation in their private life?
• How can the use of AI create ethical problems for attorneys in their practice, and how are courts responding?
• What safeguards should firms have in place for the use of open AI platforms?

Moderator:
Andrew Pauwels, Partner
Honigman LLP
Detroit, Michigan

Panelists:
Deanna Shullman, Partner
Shullman Fugate PLLC
West Palm Beach, Florida

4:05 p.m. | Panel 6 Q&A

4:15 p.m. | Adjourn

4:30 p.m. | Cocktail Reception at Rooftop Bar