2024 London Conference Speakers & Faculty

Journalists on politics, truth, celebrity reporting, impartiality, & misinformation in the age of AI

Alessandra Galloni is Editor-in-Chief of Reuters and oversees all editorial functions for the newsroom and its 2500 journalists in 200 locations around the world. She is the first female editor-in-chief in Reuters 173-year history. She joined Reuters in 1996 and left for the Wall Street Journal, where she worked for 13 years as a reporter and editor in London, Paris and Rome. In 2013 she rejoined Reuters as editor of the Southern Europe bureau, then as global managing editor, overseeing news planning. In April 2021 she was named editor-in-chief after an extensive global search.

Mark Landler is the New York Times London Bureau Chief. He focuses on Britain, its politics in the post-Brexit era, the royal family under a new monarch, and the culture and society of a changing country. He also writes about Britain’s relations with its European neighbors and the United States and uses London as a base to explore the geopolitical reach of the U.S.

Pia Sarma is the Editorial Legal Director of Times Newspapers in London, the publisher of The Times and The Sunday Times, and Deputy General Counsel at News UK, London. She advises the journalists of both newspapers on all content issues and leads the litigation against the publications. Pia advised on the introduction of the Defamation Act 2013 and has played a key role in other changes in law and regulation affecting journalism and free speech in the UK.

Anti-SLAPP laws in the UK and the EU

Laura Lee Prather is a partner at Haynes & Boone in Austin, TX and Chair of the firm’s Media Law Practice Group. Recognized nationally and internationally in First Amendment law, Laura represents a broad array of clients at the trial and appellate court level in First Amendment, Anti-SLAPP, and intellectual property disputes. She represents content providers including online and traditional publications, cable and terrestrial broadcasters, streaming media platforms, podcasts, production companies, and music and sports entities. Laura served as an American Bar Association Advisor to the Uniform Law Commission Model Anti-SLAPP Committee, which wrote the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act adopted by the ULC in 2020. She is now working with the ULC Enactment Committee to have the legislation serve as a model for the passage of Anti-SLAPP laws in all 50 states. She was a Fulbright Schumann Scholar (2022-2023) studying global developments in freedom of expression and advocating for SLAPP reform in the UK and EU.

Nimi Bruce is Director of Legal and Enforcement at the SRA with key responsibility for SLAPPs and the development of the May 2024 revised Warning Notice. Nimi Bruce oversees the prosecution of professional misconduct cases to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

Christopher Steele is a former British intelligence officer and the co-founder of Orbis Business Intelligence, a London-based private intelligence firm. In 2017, he prepared the controversial “Steele dossier” containing raw and unverified intelligence reports about the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia. He has faced defamation suits over the dossier, which he did not publish, in the US and UK. In 2023, former President Trump sued him in London alleging that Steele and Orbis violated UK data protection law and damaged his reputation. The claims were dismissed.

Professor Justin Borg-Barthet is the co-Convener of the Anti-SLAPP Research Hub at the University of Aberdeen. He is a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on SLAPPs, the lead author of two European Parliament studies concerning SLAPPs, and co-author of the CASE Model anti-SLAPP Directive. He has advised the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on global responses to SLAPPs, and provided evidence to the Scottish Parliament on bespoke anti-SLAPP legislation.

Gavin Millar KC is a barrister at Matrix in London. He has specialised in defending the right to freedom of expression for over thirty years, and in many different contexts. Often his cases involve internet expression. Recent cases include: Defending Christopher Steele in privacy and libel proceedings brought against him by persons named in his so called “Trump Dossier”, published online by Buzzfeed in 2017. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism v UK, a decision of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights which established rights to protect confidential journalistic material against the government data harvesting identified by Edward Snowden. Arlene Foster v Dr Christian Jesson in which a court in Belfast awarded £125,000 to the former First Minister of Northern Ireland for a single defamatory tweet.

Barrister Jennifer Robinson on the Status of Julian Assange and on #MeToo and Libel

Jennifer Robinson is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London specializing in media law, public law, and international law. Jen is best known for her role as a long-standing member of the legal team defending Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. She also advises media organisations, journalists, whistle-blowers and high-profile individuals on all aspects of media and defamation law. She was also a member of Amber Heard’s legal defense team in the UK in the high-profile defamation case filed by her ex-husband actor Johnny Depp. She has been instructed in human rights-related judicial review cases and has given expert evidence in Parliament and at the United Nations. She is the co-author of the recent book Silenced Women: Why The Law Fails Women and How to Fight Back, an examination of the laws around the world that silence women, and changes needed to ensure women’s freedoms are no longer threatened by the legal system.

Vetting a hypothetical article, with PrePub analysis of UK, US and EU laws

George Freeman is the Executive Director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York. He was most recently Of Counsel to the law firm of Jenner & Block. He is a former Assistant General Counsel of the New York Times Company, where he was at the forefront of numerous high‐profile cases for the company and its affiliated businesses. George is a well‐known speaker on media and First Amendment issues. He has led or participated in many media groups and is the founder and Co‐chair of the American Bar Association’s Forum on Communications Law annual conference.

Randy Shapiro joined Bloomberg L.P. as Global Media Counsel in August 2013. She is the senior newsroom lawyer to more than 2400 journalists around the globe and is responsible for newsgathering advice and prepublication review, FOIA and access requests, and newsroom legal training. Prior to joining Bloomberg, Randy was the Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel of The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company, the product of a 2010 merger between Newsweek magazine and The Daily Beast website. There, she had oversight of all legal matters including: prepublication review of editorial content; libel and privacy advice and training; copyright analysis, licensing and protection; global labor and employment counseling; contracts; and trademark and domain name registrations. Randy has served as a member of the MLRC Board since 2016.

Ciaran O’Shiel is a partner in A&L Goodbody’s Belfast office and leads the media, technology and intellectual property disputes team. He advises on defamation, privacy, data protection and content related matters, having acted for media and technology companies in the High Court and Court of Appeal. Ciaran acted for the Times, News Group, BBC, the Guardian and Associated Newspapers, who were successful last month in their judicial review challenge against the Department of Justice in overturning a blanket ban on pre-charge identification of sexual offence suspects in Northern Ireland. Most recently, Ciaran has been acting in the widely reported Investigatory Powers Tribunal proceedings regarding alleged police surveillance of journalists in Northern Ireland.

Peter Rienecker is Senior Vice President, Legal Affairs at Warner Bros. Discovery, where he is responsible for legal matters concerning the development, production, distribution and advertising of documentary programs and series, sports programming, comedy specials and talk/variety series for HBO and Max. He counsels on First Amendment and information-gathering issues, intellectual property and related labor concerns and, in particular, is responsible for pre-telecast and content review of documentary, investigative, news and sensitive fact-based programming for the network. Peter serves on the Board of Directors of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, and is a frequent lecturer and panelist on the subjects of media, communications and entertainment law.

Clara Steinitz is a co-founder of TALIENS France. She advises clients in protecting, exploiting and enforcing their creations and innovations, trade dress and know-how for media and entertainment companies, major brand owners and designers and manufacturers of luxury goods. Her practice combines IP litigation – primarily for copyright matters, product design and trademark infringements -, with transactional and advisory work, covering notably production related agreements, content and IPR licensing and development and R&D arrangements.

Jean-Frédéric Gaultier is a co-founder of TALIENS France. He advises clients in intellectual property, unfair competition and media litigation. He notably represents clients in the fields of telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and mechanics in patent and secret know how litigation before French courts. He also represents foreign media organizations in defamation and privacy disputes.

Royal Scandals: How Harry, Meghan and Other Royals Are Contributing to Privacy & Copyright Law

Adam Cannon is Director of Legal for The Sun, the UK’s most popular newspaper. He is a former Editorial Legal Director at the Telegraph Media Group and Group Legal adviser at Associated Newspapers, the Daily Mail group. He was called to the Bar in 1997. Adam has unparalleled expertise and experience in all issues of reputation management and a far-reaching network throughout the newspaper, broadcasting and online worlds, as well as a profound understanding of the key issues within the media and in particular the issues surrounding free speech. Adam sits on the Board of Directors of the MLRC, is a director of the London Press Club, sits on the boards of the Jewish News newspaper, and Conservative Friends of Israel and is a foundation governor of the 290-year-old Jewish Free School. He is a previous President of the Cambridge Union.

Adelaide Lopez is a senior associate at Wiggin LLP in London and a member of the litigation team. She represents clients across Wiggin’s key sectors in a broad spectrum of disputes, from breach of contract to breach of confidence, specialising in claims arising in defamation, privacy, data protection and copyright. She advise news and book publishers; film and TV producers; studios; broadcasters; podcasters; and content producers of all kinds on issues relating to the production and distribution of content. Before becoming a lawyer, Adelaide worked in film production in the UK and in Los Angeles for Sony Pictures Entertainment and United Artists/MGM. She is dual qualified to practice in New York and England and Wales.

Prosecution and Persecutions of the Press

Baroness Helena Kennedy of the Shaws KC is one of Britain’s most distinguished lawyers and accomplished legal and social reformers. A founding member of Doughty Street Chambers, she has practiced at the Bar for over 50 years in the field of criminal law and human rights and has conducted many of the leading cases in those years, including the Balcombe Street Siege, the Brighton bombing trial, the Guildford Four Appeal, the bombing of the Israeli embassy, the Michael Bettany Espionage case, the Jihadist fertiliser bomb plot and the transatlantic bomb plot. She has championed law reform for women, especially relating to sexual and domestic violence and developed the defence of PTSD in the UK courts. She is recognised internationally as an authority on violence against women and children, and as one of the seminal forces in reforming the legal profession’s attitude to gender equality and minority access. She is currently working for the President of Ukraine on war crimes and the recovery of thousands of children who have been abducted from Ukraine by Russian forces. She was created a life peer in 1997 and has been a strong advocate for social justice and the rule of law in the House of Lords. In March 2024, Helena was appointed to The Order of the Thistle, the greatest order of chivalry in Scotland in recognition of the importance of her public service, pioneering work in advancing human rights and social justice, both domestically and internationally.

Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC is one of the UK’s leading human rights and media freedom barristers, a key talent with the world-class team at Doughty Street Chambers, London. Among innumerable cases of global importance, she has worked on the investigations following the deaths of Alexander Litvinenko and Daphne Caruana Galizia, and the defense of Maria Ressa and her Rappler colleagues in the Philippines. In addition, Ms. Gallagher has specialisms in children’s and women’s rights and in working with bereaved families, such as those of the 7/7 London bombings and Hillsborough disaster victims. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of the UK Advisory Board to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), also working regularly with Index on Censorship and other free expression NGOs. Ms. Gallagher is one of the international lawyers who sits on CRNI’s panel of experts for the Cartoonists’ Legal Advisory Network.

Mark Stephens CBE is a senior partner at Howard Kennedy specializing in international, appellate and complex litigation, Mark Stephens has undertaken some of the highest profile cases in the country and abroad. Mark is a solicitor with an expertise in constitutional, human rights, IP, media and regulatory work, defamation, privacy, media, art and cultural property, data protection and freedom of information, trusts litigation, intellectual property and international arbitration disputes. Mark has created a niche in international comparative media law and regulation. He acts in judicial reviews, Privy Council cases- Ultimate Appeal Court for parts of the Commonwealth, as well as, regulatory cases and inquiries. Mark practices before every level of court in England and Wales and also abroad before international tribunals and courts.

Comparative IP Law: Fair Use, Transformation & AI Training

Elizabeth McNamara is a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine in New York. She specializes in complex media, intellectual property, and internet law. With extensive trial and appellate litigation experience across the country, Liz regularly represents clients in high-profile, cutting-edge litigations involving challenges to content and technology. Liz represents a broad spectrum of media and publishing entities, and she has handled many of the leading cases involving prior restraint, defamation, the intersection of commercial and editorial/entertainment litigation, and developing IP issues.

Matthew Dando is a partner at Wiggin specializing in media litigation and content protection. He advises national and international print media groups, broadcasters, and film studios on libel, privacy, rights disputes, and all other contentious issues arising in the media and entertainment sector. He has acted in many significant libel and privacy cases, being described in Legal 500 as a “star and the next big defendant-focussed lawyer in the sector.”

Simone Procas is VP & Assistant General Counsel at The New York Times Company, where she serves as lead intellectual property counsel for its publications. Prior to joining the newspaper, she worked in-house in the magazine publishing industry as associate general counsel at Time Inc., where she was lead counsel for the Sports Illustrated Group, and, before that, as associate general counsel for Meredith Corporation, where she represented publications including Parents, Child, Family Circle, and others.

Marlia Saunders is a partner at Thomson Geer in Sydney, Australia. She is an experienced media/entertainment, intellectual property and privacy lawyer who has extensive top-tier law firm expertise and a unique client perspective after working as a senior in-house lawyer for many years. She has acted in a large number of high-profile media and intellectual property disputes; advised on sponsorship, production and licensing deals; and given prepublication advice in relation to newspaper and online articles, television programs, podcasts and marketing/advertising materials.

Jens van den Brink is a partner at Kennedy Van der Laan in Amsterdam where he heads the media group. He is a media litigator, and works for newspapers, broadcasters, producers and for many major social media and other platforms. His cases are often in the area where free speech, privacy, intellectual property and other fundamental rights collide. He also handles entertainment cases, ranging from image rights to format and licensing issues.

Palin v. New York Times

David McCraw is Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at the New York Times Company. He is the newspaper’s lead newsroom lawyer, advising journalists on newsgathering and content liability issues, and litigating freedom of information cases and defending the newspaper against libel, privacy and related claims. He is the author of the book “Truth in Our Times: Inside the Fight for Press Freedom in the Age of Alternative Facts” (St. Martin’s 2019), a first-person account of the legal battles that helped shape The Times’s coverage of Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein, national security, and the rise of political partisanship in America.

BREAKOUTS

Regulation of online content in the EU, UK and Australia

David Barker is a partner at Pinsent Masons specializing in Technology, Media and Telecoms Disputes. He leads a media litigation team that has ‘rapidly established itself at the very top of the media law field, with a burgeoning portfolio of major clients and a central involvement in some of the most important media and information law cases currently proceeding before the English courts’ and is described as ‘fiercely intelligent’ (Legal 500). He is recognized as a leading practitioner in the nascent field of data protection litigation, including defending claims in relation to the “Right to Be Forgotten”. His team also has expertise in claims in defamation, malicious falsehood and misuse of private information, and ICO regulatory proceedings.

Agapi Patsa is senior legal counsel for EU regulatory affairs at Google in Brussels. She advises on legal aspects of new regulations the European Commission is proposing in the field of digital services, including the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act.

Dorien Verhulst is a partner at Brinkhof in Amsterdam and specializes in information law, with a focus on copyright, media, and privacy law. She handles cases about intermediary liability, notice & take down, the disclosure of user data and ‘the right to be forgotten’ for a variety of internet companies and digital platforms. She also handles cases about copyright infringement and piracy.

Sophie Dawson is a partner at Johnson Winter Slattery in Australia. She is an experienced media, information technology and privacy lawyer with an emphasis on advice and disputes. She has extensive experience in advising and acting for companies and agencies in relation to matters including defamation, intellectual property, privacy and law reform advice and disputes. Sophie is co-author of Thomson Reuter’s Media & Internet Law & Practice and is the current author of the Internet title in Laws of Australia.

Graham Smith is Of Counsel at Bird & Bird in London. He is one of the UK’s leading internet and IT lawyers. He has helped many kinds of internet actors on topics such as copyright, intermediary liability and cross-border exposure to foreign law and jurisdiction. He edits and co-authors the textbook Internet Law and Regulation (Sweet & Maxwell). He also advises on surveillance issues, including lawful access to communications, data retention and related privacy issues. He has also handled a variety of disputes in the IT sector, ranging from IT project litigation to software copyright disputes.

Media Deals: Cross-Border Documentaries & Deals

Alexia Bedat is a partner at Klaris Law. She supports content creators from early deal-making stages through to development and distribution, including as clearance counsel. Her clients range from podcast and audiobook production companies to documentary filmmakers and studios. As part of her work, Alexia seeks to help founders, studio heads and producers develop their IP responsibly, keeping in mind the implications of constantly evolving technologies and emerging distribution models.

Blaise Gaymer is a senior associate at Simons Muirhead & Burton and a member of the Media and Corporate & Commercial teams. She advises clients principally within the film, TV, publishing, and digital media industries – and has been called a ‘Rising Star’ by the Legal 500. She has also had substantial in-house experience at VICE and Hearst Magazines. She has specialist expertise in reviewing and advising on content for broadcast and particularly for on-line publications.

Lindsey Faivus is the lead IP attorney for Netflix’s unscripted, documentaries, and sports verticals in the United States and Canada. In this role, she and her team work to mitigate risk by advising on a broad range of issues, including copyright, trademark, defamation, privacy, right of publicity, and First Amendment concerns. Prior to her current position, Lindsey served as Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs at VICE Media, where she led the legal team responsible for commercial and editorial content. She was the primary attorney for the news and documentaries teams

International Media Law: International norms and comparative laws affecting the press

Peter Bartlett is one of Australia’s leading media and communications law experts. He is a partner and past Chair of Minter Ellison, Australia’s largest law firm. Peter headed the defence team in the Ben Roberts-Smith libel case, dubbed by the Australian Media as the” Trial of the Century.” Peter is the immediate Past Chair of the Legal Practice Division of the International Bar Association (the first from Asia Pacific to hold that position since the IBA was formed in 1947). He is a member of the MLRC International Committee.

David Korzenik is a partner at Miller Korzenik Sommers Rayman in New York. He represents numerous publishers, magazines, broadcasters, new media and technology companies, producers, authors, agents, advertisers and software companies in rights acquisitions, intellectual property matters, licensing, electronic and multimedia distribution, and litigation concerning these areas. He represented Spy Magazine throughout its 11-year existence and presently manages claims, litigation, pre-publication review and business matters for a wide variety of magazines and other publications. He acts for media insurers handling a variety of claims and litigations against insured media. He has overseen the defense of litigation in India on behalf of Forbes and Forbes Asia. He regularly works with foreign media defense counsel and manages claims against U.S. media and human rights groups in foreign nations.

Dave Heller is a Deputy Director of the Media Law Resource Center. He advises lawyers and journalists on a wide range of media law and policy issues. He also writes and presents about these issues for MLRC’s media law publications and online programming. Much of his work focuses on MLRC’s international programs and initiatives, including MLRC’s international conferences, and support for media law reform through legislation and litigation. He also contributes to MLRC’s Zoom programming, interviewing leading First Amendment scholars, lawyers, journalists, and others newsmakers.

Training AI to Vet News Content

Lesley Caplin is Of Counsel in Dentons’ Dublin office in the Disputes practice group. She Lesley is a highly experienced commercial litigator and media specialist. Her practice primarily focuses on media defense for a wide range of clients, including broadcasters, digital platforms, newspapers and publishers. Lesley is an experienced civil jury practitioner and has been involved in many of the seminal defamation actions in Ireland in recent years including O’Brien v. Mirror Group Newspapers, Leech v. Independent Newspapers, Ryanair v. Channel 4 and Robbins v. BuzzFeed Inc. Lesley’s commercial disputes practice is usually cross-border in nature and she has acted in a number of complex commercial disputes relating to finance and fraud.

Neil Brady is the CEO and co-founder of CaliberAI which aims to reduce risks to publishers and others by helping to counter potentially defamatory and harmful content, through the use of Artificial Intelligence systems built to the highest ethical standards. Neil is journalist and academic researcher. He previously worked as Digital Policy Analyst with the Institute of International and European Affairs. Prior to this, he worked for The Guardian and social media agency Storyful. He holds an MA in Political Science from University College Dublin and an MBS in Management & Organisation from the Smurfit Business School.

Stephanie S. Abrutyn is counsel at Dentons in the New York and Washington, D.C. offices. She regularly provides strategic advice and handles sensitive claims, complex litigation, and regulatory and compliance issues in a wide range of matters for media and entertainment industry clients, including intellectual property, First Amendment, technology, antitrust, and commercial disputes. Prior to joining Dentons, Stephanie served as general counsel and corporate secretary for Grid, a digital media startup that launched in January 2022 and was purchased in April 2023, and as Senior Vice President and Chief Counsel, Litigation and Public Policy at WarnerMedia, where she led global litigation and oversaw public policy for WarnerMedia’s business and brands, including HBO, CNN, Turner Broadcasting and Warner Bros.

Debate: Perils and Promise of AI

Fraser Campbell is a barrister at Blackstone Chambers. His practice is focused on commercial litigation and arbitration. He is also experienced in judicial review cases, typically involving highly-regulated businesses, and in pensions-related litigation. Fraser studied law at Pembroke College, Oxford and the University of Leiden, Netherlands. As a student he was President of the Oxford Union (where he is now a trustee) and European Debating Champion, and on graduating was elected a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.

Leita Walker is a litigator and trial lawyer in the firm’s Media and Entertainment Law Group. She has nearly 15 years of experience defending media organizations in libel litigation and helping them obtain access to governmental and judicial records. Leita’s First Amendment practice includes defending libel, privacy, and right of publicity claims in trial and appellate courts across the country; prepublication vetting of both news and entertainment content; and advising clients on subpoenas and privilege issues, copyright law, and state and federal Freedom of Information Act laws. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Leita wrote for the Christian Science Monitor, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and the Lawrence Journal-World.

In-House Counsel Breakfast (Sept. 25)

Nigel Hanson is the editorial content lawyer for The Financial Times in London. He reviews content and advices FT journalists on defamation, privacy, confidence and data protection, advising on the enforceability of a non-disclosure agreement that the undercover reporter was required to sign without being given a chance to read its contents, the application of provisions of charities law, statutory reporting restrictions covering anonymity for victims of alleged sexual offences, and ethical issues such as the use of subterfuge and undercover reporters.

Jacob P. Goldstein is Vice President and associate general counsel, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. He focuses on domestic and international litigation and media-law issues. Dow Jones, a division of News Corp, has produced journalism for more than 130 years through The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch, Dow Jones Newswires, and its other publications, and today has one of the world’s largest newsgathering operations. Dow Jones’s professional information services, including the Factiva news database and Risk & Compliance, ensure that businesses worldwide have the data and facts they need to make intelligent decisions.

Gina McWilliams is a Senior Legal Counsel in News Corp Australia’s Editorial Legal team. She provides pre-publication advice, maintains NCA’s national publication orders database, trains journalists in all elements of publication law and works with the policy team that responds to state/territory and federal government legislative proposals that will have an impact on publication.