Kelli L. Sager

Partner

Kelli Sager has more than thirty-five years of experience representing all kinds of media and entertainment companies, including web publishers, broadcasters, filmmakers, newspapers, and book publishers. She consistently has been recognized as one of the top First Amendment attorneys in the country: among other accolades, Chambers USA has ranked her for over ten consecutive years in its top tier of media attorneys in the U.S.; she has been one of Lawdragon‘s 500 Leading Lawyers in America since 2005, and she regularly is included in the Los Angeles Daily Journal‘s lists of top lawyers in California. In 2019 Kelli received the “Excellence in Advocacy” award from the Beverly Hills Bar Association, the first woman to receive that honor. Kelli has argued dozens of times in federal and state appellate courts, including many times in the California Supreme Court and 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. She has served in leadership roles in virtually every media-related bar association and nonprofit, including chairing the ABA Forum on Communications Law, the IBA’s Media Committee, and the Media Law Resource Center Defense Counsel Section.

Participating Sessions

THE CHILLING EFFECT OF LIBEL DEFAMATION COSTS

In 1964, the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in New York Times v. Sullivan shaped libel law and bolstered freedom of press in the U.S. by raising the bar for public figures, requiring them to prove a journalist or news organization knowingly lied or acted with reckless disregard for the truth in order to win a defamation lawsuit. Over the course of nearly 60 years, the Sullivan decision has served as...