Media and Entertainment Litigation

A creative industry demands creative legal solutions. Your litigation issues are specific to media and entertainment, so you need litigators with deep experience in media law. With collective decades of experience, our team offers practical understanding and knowledge of the particular problems and issues you face.

Clients come to us for a full range of both counseling and litigation services in all aspects of media and First Amendment law, including:

  • Pre-publication and pre-broadcast review and counseling
  • Media access issues and litigation, including state public information acts and open meetings acts, the United States Freedom of Information Act, and the sealing of court records
  • Trademark, service mark, and copyright fair use advice and infringement litigation
  • Journalists’ privilege issues, including issues relating to protection of confidential sources and response to subpoenas
  • Libel, invasion of privacy, defamation, and related business tort litigation
  • Online publishing
  • Freelance writer and photographer contracts
  • Advertising issues
  • Prior restraint and anti-SLAPP issues

We represent media clients, including print and online publishers and newspapers, broadcasters, and individual authors and journalists, as well as individuals and organizations outside the media business.

Clients appreciate our cutting-edge industry knowledge, earned through our involvement in numerous professional organizations related to our representation of clients in the media. We are active members of the Defense Counsel Section of the Media Law Resource Center, a national organization promoting the development of libel law favorable to the media. To stay abreast of current developments, our Media and First Amendment lawyers attend or participate in conferences and seminars sponsored by or in conjunction with media industry organizations. If it’s happening in your industry, we’re on top of it.

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Status Lounge Incorporated v. KHOU-TV, Inc., Gannett Co., Inc., William Langlois, Hearst Newspapers, LLC d/b/a Houston Chronicle and Dale Lezon; Cause No. 2016-51529 in the 164th Judicial District Court of Harris County, Texas

Plaintiff, a nightclub/bar, sued our client, a television station, for its brief online article -based on a police news conference - that reported on a dispute that occurred in front of the bar and the subsequent shooting of a band member in the arm. After an initial, successful appeal of the denial [...]

Broder, et al. v. Nexstar Broadcast Group, Inc., et al.; Cause No. D-1-GN-19-000768 in the 261st Judicial District Court, Travis County, Texas

Plaintiffs, a doctor and his medical practice, filed a retaliatory lawsuit against Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc., alleging defamation after Nexstar’s television station, KXAN, published online and broadcast reports about inherent problems with the Texas Medical Board’s complaint and investigation [...]

Cummings v. Hechinger Institute at Teachers’ College, Columbia University, et al. (SDNY)

Represented the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media, Teachers College, Columbia University, against Plaintiff’s claims of defamation. The claims arose from an article in the Hechinger Report concerning published allegations that Plaintiff forced black students in her middle school class t [...]

Sean Gharavi v. Behrooz Khademazad, d/b/a Grand Prairie Family Dental

Represented client in appeal of $1.2 million judgment based on a single social media post (Yelp review) and obtained full reversal and rendering of take-nothing judgment in client’s favor.

Aubrey v. D Magazine Partners, LP

Successfully defended defamation claim against magazine client regarding article discussing arson murder of prominent Dallas attorney in his garage. When case was initially filed in Florida federal court, we obtained dismissal or personal jurisdiction grounds, and when case was refiled in Texas fede [...]

Yesh Music, LLC v. Pacific Northwest College of Art (E.D.N.Y.)

Represented Pacific Northwest College of Art against claims of copyright infringement arising from the use of music on a number of YouTube videos.

Reyes v. D Magazine Partners, LP, 571 S.W.3d 753 (Tex. 2019)

Successfully defended defamation claim on behalf of magazine client, resulting in dismissal of all claims with prejudice. After the trial court enter partial summary judgment in favor of D Magazine, we appealed to the Dallas Court of Appeals, which dismissed all claims. After briefing and oral argum [...]

City of Pensacola v. Kondrat'yev, No. 18-351 (U.S. 2019)

Filed amicus brief with the US Supreme Court regarding the constitutional impact of the religious expression of private parties on government property, resulting in the appellate court judgment being vacated and reversal of the adverse district court judgment.

Jones v. Kirkstall Rd. Enterprises, Inc., 2020 WL 2059910 (Tex. App.'Dallas Apr. 29, 2020, no pet.)

Successfully obtained summary judgment on behalf of a television production company in a negligence lawsuit alleging that the broadcast of an episode of The First 48, a critically acclaimed documentary television series, incited retaliatory violence against the Plaintiff.

Melanson v. Grace, et al., Cause No. D-1-GN-17-003349 (261st Dist. Ct., Travis County, Tex., Mar. 27, 2018)

Haynes and Boone represented CBS Television Distribution, Graham Media and Associated Newspapers, all national media outlets, in a defamation suit brought by an Austin-area dentist after Defendants reported on the tragic death of a 14-month dental patient who died as a result of complications from a [...]

Uvalde Texas
Article/Mention
Haynes Boone Represents Media Coalition in Lawsuit Against Texas Department of Safety Regarding the [...]
August 10, 2022

Haynes and Boone, LLP is representing a media coalition of more than a dozen news organizations that have filed a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Safety on Aug. 1, claiming the department has improperly withheld public records related to the school shooting in Uvalde. The shooting and the lawsuit have been covered extensively by the media, which have quoted First Amendment lawyer and firm [...]