Subpoena Defense Seminar — Registration

Tom Burke, a partner in the San Francisco office of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, regularly defends journalists who are subpoenaed in civil and criminal suits in state and federal court.  He has likely encountered every kind of journalist subpoena issue possible in his 27 years of practice in California’s state and federal courts.  Mr. Burke is Co-Chair of DWT’s national Media Law practice.  Tom defends speech across all mediums – representing Internet companies, television networks, studios, book, magazine and newspaper publishers, authors, journalists, photographers, documentary filmmakers, and environmental groups and he regularly litigates public records lawsuits in state and federal court. He is also a Continuing Lecturer on Media Law at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 2002.  He is the author of “Anti-SLAPP Litigation” (The Rutter Group 2013-present) and a Contributing Editor to Weil & Brown, “Cal. Practice Guide: Civil Procedure Before Trial” (The Rutter Group 2014-present) (Anti-SLAPP Motions).

Karl Olson, a partner in the San Francisco office of Cannata, O’Toole, Fickes & Almazan, specializes in Public Records Act litigation and in defending news media clients and individuals against defamation and ‘SLAPP suits’ (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation). He has successfully defended dozens of such cases in his 35-year legal career, disposing of most of them at a very early stage and obtaining sanctions or fee awards against the plaintiffs in many such cases. He has also successfully prosecuted  numerous battles for access to public records under the California Public Records Act, including a successful lawsuit decided by the California Supreme Court involving access to public employee salaries, and access to emails sent by government employees on their “private” electronic devices.  Karl won the 2005 James Madison award for legal counsel from the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and was featured in a front-page article in San Francisco’s Daily Journal, “Attorney Who Advocates for Public Access Wins Praise” (March 16, 2005). He won the California Newspaper Publishers Association’s Freedom of Information Award in 2012.

With the explosion in small/nonprofit media outlets, as well as a steep rise in the number of freelance journalists, there is a significant and growing need for qualified counsel to defend subpoenas served on journalists who lack counsel or the means to hire counsel.  Many subpoenas can be handled swiftly, with a phone call or an email.  Others require more extended negotiations, and some may require a motion to quash and a related court appearance.   Thus, they present an ideal opportunity for lawyers to engage in work for the public good on a time- and subject-matter-limited basis.  They may also present good opportunities for junior lawyers to get hands-on, courtroom experience.

Join FAC in its defense of freedom of speech and freedom of the press.  Join us for this critically important program.