Kelli L. Sager

Sager is one of the nation’s premier attorneys for news, media and entertainment companies. Lately, she has had to bring a spate of anti-SLAPP motions for the Los Angeles Times, CNBC, News Corp. and several television production companies to short-circuit lawsuits for defamation and other claims.

“I think during the pandemic you might have expected less litigation, but it didn’t seem to slow people down from suing,” she said.

Perhaps her highest-profile case recently was the suit filed by former Rep. Katie Hill against the Daily Mail and others over the publication of redacted nude photos that drove Hill to resign from Congress. Sager not only derailed the litigation but won more than $100,000 in fees and costs for her client. Hill v. Heslep, 20STCV48797 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Dec. 22, 2020).

Sager also is defending the Daily Mail against a lawsuit by My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell asserting he was defamed by an article seeming to link him romantically with 30 Rock star Jane Krakowski. “It does strike us as one of these cases where you’d think he would have something better to do with his time,” Sager said. Lindell v Mail Media Inc., 1:21-cv-00667 (S.D. N.Y., filed Jan. 25, 2021)

“They’re very interesting pieces of litigation the Daily Mail gets involved in,” she added.

Another of those is the latest in a series six lawsuits filed by former British solicitor Sharokh Mireskandari against the publication and others for wronging him in their reporting about the loss of his law license. His most recent suit is pending in state court in Virginia, where in July a judge “agreed with us that [he] couldn’t sue the London Daily Mail in Virginia,” Sager said. Mireskandari v. Daily Mail & General Trust PLC CL-2019-9418 (Fairfax Cnty Circ. Ct., opn filed July 27, 2020).

Sager is scheduled to go to trial against coal executive and former West Virginia GOP Senate primary candidate Don Blankenship, who claims he was defamed by news reports about his conviction for conspiracy to violate mine-safety laws. Blankenship v. Fox News Network LLC, 2:19-cv-00236 (S.D. W.Va., filed March 29, 2019).

“It’s been a busy 18 months, and it looks like it’s going to continue to be busy in the future,” Sager said. “It’s good for law firms, I guess, but I’m concerned about the media because it’s always a challenge for media companies to do the job that they need to do.”

— Don DeBenedictis