Entertainment, Media & First Amendment Disputes
Entertainment Litigation
We represent talent and creators against large entertainment companies. Our attorneys have handled sensitive and high-profile cases, and we bring the judgment and discretion those cases require. We help clients get paid what the deal promised: profit participation and contingent compensation, backend accounting, and the most-favored-nation and good faith negotiation provisions that determine what a participation is actually worth. We also handle other contract disputes, including advising on ownership contests and termination disputes, and we work alongside transactional counsel whose clients have a dispute they are seeking to resolve without litigation.
Our Experience
Courtney Elgart served as co-lead counsel at her prior firm Sullivan & Triggs LLP for the creator and executive producers of The Walking Dead in their litigation against AMC, which settled in 2026 for $120 million. Jean Ralph Fleurmont and Stephanie Command were also critical members of the Sullivan & Triggs team on that case. Courtney Elgart has also obtained multi-million-dollar awards for profit participants in private arbitration and represented an actor in a film financing dispute. She has also advised on profit participation accounting and negotiated with entertainment companies for pre-litigation resolutions of disputes over profit participation and other matters.
Jean Ralph Fleurmont defended several major media networks in a copyright infringement action against a streaming service that ended in summary judgment for the networks. He also handled talent-side disputes in sports and live entertainment, including a breach of contract arbitration for a former National Football League head coach.
First Amendment & Defamation
We represent speakers. Writers, filmmakers, journalists, performers, and other creators, and the studios, networks, and publishers that produce and distribute their work, face defamation claims, retaliation for what they have said and published, and government efforts to regulate speech. So do political consultants, campaigns, elected officials, and nonprofits whose speech is part of their work. We defend those claims, challenge retaliation and restrictions on speech, and protect clients’ First Amendment rights when private litigants or government investigators seek their internal communications. Some of this work happens before anything is filed: a review before publication or release can identify potential liability and ways to reduce it.
Our Experience
Stephanie Command has defended clients against defamation and litigated First Amendment claims in state and federal trial and appellate courts. She has defended national political figures against defamation claims arising from public statements concerning a highly publicized matter, contributing to a successful motion to dismiss the claims in federal court. She defended a national nonprofit organization against defamation claims arising from its characterization of a prominent political activist, in litigation involving First Amendment protections for opinion and commentary on matters of public concern; the claims were dismissed. She represented a U.S. Senate campaign in state-court litigation involving defamation claims arising from political campaign advertising. She also represented a national public affairs and political communications firm in federal First Amendment litigation alleging that private actors and state election officials had improperly participated in the moderation of election-related speech on social media. She obtained dismissal of the claims against the client at the pleading stage and represented the client in the Ninth Circuit appeal.
She counsels clients on speech-related legal and reputational risks, including defamation, First Amendment protections, prepublication review, and demands for removal or correction of harmful content, with strategies that account for both potential legal exposure and broader public-facing considerations. She regularly provided prepublication counseling to an advocacy organization concerning reports and other public-facing materials critical of the policies and practices of major institutions in its industry, including assessing defamation risk and recommending revisions to mitigate potential liability. She has also advised political campaigns and organizations on defamation risk in campaign advertisements and other public communications, including prepublication review of campaign materials.
She protects the speech and associational rights of political organizations and candidates, both when their internal communications are targeted in subpoenas and investigations and in affirmative constitutional litigation. She has advised a political organization on First Amendment privileges in responding to third-party subpoenas seeking internal communications revealing political strategy and other associational information. She represented a political candidate in a state governmental ethics investigation, including responding to a subpoena and preparing the client for an investigative interview, in a matter implicating First Amendment protections for political and associational activity as well as significant reputational and public-facing considerations. She has also litigated constitutional challenges involving political speech and association, including restrictions affecting voter-registration activity, political organizing, campaign and election-related speech, and other expressive activity protected by the First Amendment.
Courtney Elgart has litigated First Amendment and other constitutional claims in state and federal courts. She represented nonprofit organizations targeted in government investigations for their political affiliation, raising First Amendment challenges to regulators’ efforts to obtain their private communications. She represented nonprofits and political actors in challenges to government efforts to restrict protected expression. She has also worked on an amicus brief addressing First Amendment retaliatory arrest claims.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.