Preti Flaherty has the largest Media Law practice group in northern New England, representing leading media trade associations, publishers, and broadcasters throughout the region and nation. We are known for our vigorously proactive First Amendment practice, and work in partnership with our clients to strengthen their power to gather and disseminate information. We have had great success effecting changes in the laws and defending against legislation adverse to the media, including enacting Maine’s first journalist’s shield law. Our media attorneys have secured favorable judgments and verdicts for top news networks and publications, including Forbes, WGME-TV (a CBS affiliate), ESPN, Yankee Magazine, and the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, as well as major corporations, such as Walmart and others, in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and beyond.

With extensive experience in the field, we leverage a diverse and innovative arsenal of skills and tactics in service to our clients in all areas of media law, including:

  • First Amendment litigation, including defamation and privacy litigation
  • Freedom of information litigation in state and federal court
  • Copyright and trademark litigation
  • Prepublication review
  • Libel and privacy advice
  • Protection of newsgathering and editorial processes, including defense of criminal and civil subpoenas on the new media
  • Anti-Slapp litigation

Leaders in the Field

The attorneys in our Media Law practice group stand at the forefront of the media law community. We are members of the counsel section of the Media Law Resource Center and authors of the Maine chapter in its widely used 50 State Survey of Media Libel Law in the United States. We also author the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit or Maine chapters in several publications by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The various chapters we author can be viewed here. Our team includes board members of the New England First Amendment Coalition and the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition.

Historical Legacy

The firm’s roots in First Amendment law were planted 90 years ago with the successful defense of a libel case brought against the Portland Press Herald—then owned by Guy P. Gannett and his publishing business.  In a ruling in favor of the press, Chapman v. Gannett, 132 Me. 389,  171 A. 397 (1934), Maine’s highest court agreed with argument presented by a direct predecessor of the firm. Applying the objective reasonable person standard to determine whether a statement is defamatory, the Court dismissed a libel claim brought against the newspaper by a bank president. The firm has represented the Portland Press Herald and related newspapers ever since. 

Materials on Preti’s Media Law and Freedom of Information practice can be downloaded here.