2025 MLRC Miami Conference: Speakers & Faculty
Privacy and Security: Hot topics for media companies
Hilary Lane is a partner at Ballard Spahr in New York. She is an experienced privacy and data security adviser, media lawyer, and litigator. Her practice focuses on privacy and data security, providing pragmatic, strategic, business-savvy advice to help clients navigate the increasingly complex global privacy landscape. Hilary previously served as the Chief Privacy Officer at NBCUniversal—where she advised on privacy, data strategy, and cybersecurity, built and managed the global privacy program and team, and counseled on data products, initiatives and transactions—as well as in private practice as outside counsel to media and entertainment, consumer products, and technology companies.
Paula Mena Barreto is a partner in Campos Mello Advogados (Brazil) in cooperation with DLA Piper’s Intellectual Property and Data Protection practices. Paula is highly experienced in the area of data protection and privacy matters, advising clients on implementation of privacy policies, as well as data breach and privacy compliance issues, including marketing, labor and consumer related aspects. Paula also advises clients on intellectual property issues, which include IP transactions (intellectual property agreements, transfer of technology and franchising), as well as prosecution and consulting services in relation to trademarks, copyrights, patents and software. Paula further advises clients on strategies for IP management, including legal due diligence for evaluation of IP assets and analysis of data privacy compliance, IP policies and litigation.
Cameron Scullen is Senior Legal Counsel, FIFA (Americas), in Miami. He counsels FIFA on a wide range of data protection and security issues relating to its members, events and business development.
Steven Blickensderfer is Lead Privacy Counsel at Krafton, an international mobile game company. He leads the privacy protection group, managing the global regulatory team across all laws impacting the video game industry. He also assists with Krafton’s global litigation. He previously led the video game and esports practice at Carlton Fields and was a founding member of the firm’s cybersecurity and privacy practice group.
The Persecution and Prosecution of Journalists in Latin America.
Javier Garza is a journalist based in Torreón, México, specializing in security and protection protocols and training for newsrooms and individual journalists. He runs the local news platform Horizonte Lagunero and co-hosts El Noti, one of the most popular news podcasts in México. He has extensive experience covering violence and organized crime. From 2006 to 2013, he was the editorial director of El Siglo de Torreón, one of the most critical newspapers in northern México. In response to violence by organized crime, he developed safety protocols for reporters and editors, which later became a model for other newsrooms in México and Latin America.
Adolfo Jimenez is a partner at Holland & Knight in Miami. His practice focuses on international disputes. Mr. Jiménez leads Holland & Knight’s South Florida Litigation Practice Group, which consists of more than 80 attorneys, and also leads the firm’s International Arbitration and Litigation Team. In the media law area, he represents broadcasters, print and online media, producers, streaming companies and studios on programming and publications in English and Spanish, as well as disputes involving technology, copyright, entertainment, privacy and trademark claims.
Timely First Amendment issues
Thomas Julin is a partner at Gunster in Miami. He has litigated free speech issues of almost every type in Florida and around the country. He is dedicated to advocating the First Amendment rights of businesses. Most notably, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled favorably in Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc., 564 U.S. 552 (2011) on Tom’s argument that data mining for target marketing is protected against regulation that cannot survive heightened judicial scrutiny. Tom’s experience also includes the defense of libel, slander and privacy invasion claims. He also has used the federal civil rights act to attack government regulations of speech, and sunshine, public records and Freedom of Information laws to extract information from government agencies. He has used the First Amendment, the Communications Decency Act, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other laws to protect publishers from damage claims of all types.
Clay Calvert is a nonresident senior fellow in technology policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He is also a professor of law emeritus at the Levin College of Law and Brechner Eminent Scholar Emeritus at the College of Journalism and Communications, both at the University of Florida. Considered one of the foremost experts on First Amendment law, Dr. Calvert is often a source in writings about the First Amendment and freedom of expression. He is the lead author of a market-leading undergraduate media law textbook Mass Media Law, 22nd ed. (McGraw Hill, 2023) and the author of Voyeur Nation: Media, Privacy, and Peering in Modern Culture (Westview Press, 2000).
George Freeman is Executive Director of the Media Law Resource Center. 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.
Florida Bar President
Roland Sanchez-Medina Jr. is a transactional lawyer and managing partner of SMGQ Law. He is a member of The Florida Bar’s Business Law Section, the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section, and the International Law Section. He served as Cuban American Bar Association president in 2009. He was elected to The Florida Bar Board of Governors more than nine years ago and has served on numerous board committees, including recently chairing the influential Program Evaluation Committee. His extensive history of community and professional service includes stints as chair of the Miami-Dade County School Board’s Budget & Audit Committee, chair of the Board of Directors and general counsel of the South Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and as a member of the Orange Bowl Committee.
FIFA World Cup 2026: Legal and Business Issues
Gustavo Lopez has over 25 years of experience guiding the world’s most popular media companies, handling complex international legal transactions like mergers and acquisitions, cross-border financing arrangements and private placements. In 2024, he joined FIFA’s new Miami-based Legal and Compliance team. The Legal and Compliance Division’s work includes revising FIFA Statutes, reforming its transfer system, FIFA Clearing House and FIFA’s judicial bodies, among other things. It also plays a central role in the daily collaboration between FIFA and its 211 MAs, guiding educational projects and the National Dispute Resolution Chambers, among other responsibilities. Other specialist areas it covers include match-fixing or competition manipulation, digital and technology and regulatory compliance.
Florida First Amendment Developments
David Karp is of counsel at Carlton Fields in Miami. His practice focuses on appeals and representing content creators in First Amendment and defamation cases. He has handled appeals in federal and state courts on a range of issues: class actions, bad faith insurance cases, real property disputes, personal injury cases, and constitutional challenges to state and local laws. He is the past chair of The Florida Bar Media and Communications Law Committee and writes and speaks about First Amendment law.
Daniel Tilley has been legal director of the ACLU of Florida since April 2019. He joined the organization in 2012 as a staff attorney whose work primarily focused on the LGBTQ community. Among his other work, he served as lead counsel in the ACLU’s federal-court litigation that, as part of a pair of consolidated cases and a team of lawyers, brought marriage equality to Florida in January 2015.
David Smiley is the Miami Herald’s politics editor and oversees McClatchy’s Washington bureau. A graduate of Florida International University, he has covered races for governor and president during a career that has spanned three decades.
Alex Pickett is the Courthouse News Service reporter for the Tampa Bay area. In his 18 years of reporting, Alex’s stories have spanned from investigations into zoos, police departments and homelessness to violations of Florida’s Sunshine Laws. He has written award-winning features on the longest sentence served by a non-violent drug offender, the effects of gentrification on a historic African-American neighborhood and the apathy toward a rural Florida county devastated by Hurricane Michael. He has hitchhiked the state of Florida, spent early mornings in hobo camps (for a story, of course) and covered the sensational Hulk Hogan sex tape trial.
Comparative Copyright Panel
Cindy Gierhart is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Holland & Knight. Her practice is focused on media, trademark, copyright and entertainment law. Ms. Gierhart has represented clients in litigation involving right of publicity, defamation, trademark, copyright, trade secrets and access to judicial records. Prior to attending law school, Ms. Gierhart worked for eight years as a newspaper reporter and editor, project manager in book publishing and freelance book editor. She brings this perspective to her work advising clients on First Amendment issues and negotiating agreements for companies and individuals involved in book publishing, filmmaking and podcast production.
Roxana Kahale is founding partner of Kahale Abogados an Argentine law firm with specialization in media law. Roxana Kahale represents several US Programmers such as Turner, MTV Viacom, Sony, NBCU, BBC among others. She is outside counsel to TAP the US trade association that represents all US programmers and has actively intervened in the regulation of Argentine Media Law regarding programmers. She also represents MPA and SAG AFTRA in several matters in Argentina and individual talent from the music industry, theater and performance arts in Argentina. She has negotiated and drafted co production agreements related to Argentine movies such as The Secret of Her Eyes and Wild Tales.
Rosalio Mata is Senior Corporate Counsel at Amazon Studios in Miami. He counsels studios and producers in all business and legal aspects related to the financing, acquisition, production, distribution and other exploitation of intellectual property content, with an emphasis on motion picture, television and SVOD transactions.
Ana Siegel is the CEO and Founder of GESA Globalist Ventures. She offers general counsel services as well as risk management and business consulting services. Most recently, she served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel for NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and oversaw all legal resources, including the division’s Business & Legal Affairs team. Previously, she worked at Fox Latin America Channels serving as Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Business and Legal Affairs.
Sergio Gómez Martínez is a partner at Ojeda | Ojeda y Asociados in Mexico. He advises film studios and distribution platforms on the production of television series and films in Mexico, including advising on copyright and image rights relating to the entertainment industry.
Other Faculty
Carol LoCicero is the managing partner in Thomas & LoCicero’s Tampa office. She practices at the trial and appellate levels, handling litigation concerning defamation and privacy, the Public Records Act, the Government in the Sunshine Law, court access and cameras in the courtroom. She leads advocacy efforts on media issues. Carol is a nationally-recognized media lawyer routinely sought after as a speaker on media issues at national and statewide conferences. She often leads statewide advocacy efforts on media issues, most recently involving access to Florida courts and Florida’s anti-SLAPP law. Carol regularly renders pre-and post-publication advice on investigative news stories. She handles issues concerning newsgathering and technology.
Mark Caramanica is a partner at Thomas & LoCicero in Tampa. His practice focuses on media law, intellectual property, and civil litigation. Prior to joining the firm, Mark was an attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the nation’s leading legal advocacy non-profit organization serving free press and First Amendment interests. In that role, he specialized in freedom of information, access, and intellectual property issues. Mark also served as director of the Marion Brechner Citizen Access Project at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications, where he taught classes in media and telecommunications law. He is a frequent speaker at journalism and media conferences and has been quoted in publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Pro Publica. He has also appeared on NPR and On the Media.
Adrianna Rodriguez is Vice President & Assistant General Counsel-News at TelevisaUnivision, Inc., based in Miami, Florida. In this role, she serves as newsroom counsel to all news programs on the Univision network, the 24/7 news streaming channel, Univision’s various digital news properties, all radio stations and local news stations across the country. Prior to joining TelevisaUnivision, Adrianna was a member of Ballard Spahr’s Media and Entertainment Law Group.
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 about these issues for MLRC’s media law publications. Much of his work focuses on MLRC’s international programs and initiatives, including support for media law reform through legislation and litigation.