Kelli L. Sager

Entertainment & Media and First Amendment Litigation

Los Angeles

Kelli Sager has long been recognized as one of the country's top attorneys defending the First Amendment rights of publishers, news media and entertainment clients. Over her more than 35 years in the field, her practice has expanded.

"It used to be a much more regional or statewide practice and then a national practice," Sager said. "Now it's international." One reason is obvious. "In a post-internet world, all of the clients that I work for were starting to have many more international issues," she said.

As a result, Sager has been deeply involved in the International Bar Association for about 15 years, including holding several posts in its leadership.

An international client Sager represents often is Associated Newspapers Limited, the London-based owner of the Daily Mail and MailOnline, among others. Currently, she is the lead counsel defending it, as well as CNBC, MSNBC and Reuters, in a defamation lawsuit filed my Donald Trump's media company complaining about news coverage of the company's pre-merger financial losses. She moved to dismiss in April. TMTG v. Guardian News and Media, CA 008180 NC (Fla. 12th Cir. Ct., filed Nov. 21, 2023).

In another case for the company, she won an important decision two months ago from the New York intermediate appellate court clarifying the right of defendants to collect attorneys' fees under an amendment to the state's anti-SLAPP statute.

"It's a ruling that a lot of the New York lawyers and media companies heralded in the press ... [as] something that's going to be useful going forward." Reeves v. Associated Newspapers Ltd., 2021-03446 (N.Y. App. Div., dec'd. April 9, 2024).

The ruling came in the defamation lawsuit brought by wealthy elevator magnate Karl Reeves against MailOnline over an article it published about his contentions divorce.

Sager wins many of her court cases with anti-SLAPP motions. The statute authorizing those motions has "certainly been a game changer in California and other states that have adopted SLAPP statutes because it gives media companies the possibility of getting back some of the incredible defense costs that result from these lawsuits," she said.

In February, Sager was awarded $200,000 in fees for winning an anti-SLAPP motion the year before that tossed out a libel lawsuit against the L.A. Times filed by prominent litigator Mark Geragos. He has appealed. His underlying suit attacked the paper's coverage of disputes growing out of the $17.5 million settlement Geragos and other attorneys won from insurance companies related to the Armenian Genocide. Geragos v. Los Angeles Times Communication LLC, B338156 (Cal. App. 2nd Dist., filed April 10, 2024).

And in February and again in May, Sager won anti-SLAPP motions dismissing privacy and other claims filed by an entertainment attorney against four Warner Bros. entities over a "True Crime Daily" episode that included an interview with the attorney about a client charged with a gristly murder. He claims the producers needed his written permission to use the interview. Tenser v. GNH Productions Inc., 22SMCV01153 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed July 18, 2022).

-- Don DeBenedictis