Tom Burke concentrates his practice on Internet, media law and entertainment litigation matters. He has over two decades of trial and appellate court litigation experience, including multiple appearances before the California Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and California’s Courts of Appeal, defending libel, invasion of privacy, right of publicity, shield law, and copyright and trademark lawsuits on behalf of publishers, websites, networks, studios, authors and journalists.
Tom's clients include: Amazon.com, The Bakersfield Californian, Cable News Network, Inc., California Newspaper Publishers Association, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Investigative Reporting, Chico Community Publishing, Lions Gate Entertainment, The Los Angeles Times, The McClatchy Company, The New York Times Co., San Francisco Bay Guardian, San Francisco Chronicle, Sierra Club, and Western Communications, Inc.
Selected Experience
GLAD v. Cable News Network, Inc.
Lead counsel representing CNN in this putative class action lawsuit seeking to compel CNN.com to include closed captioning on all news videos available on CNN.com. (2011)
Tiwari v. NBCUniversal Media, Inc.
Lead counsel representing NBCUniversal in this federal civil rights lawsuit arising from an episode of Dateline NBC: To Catch A Predator. (2011)
Keck v. Amazon.com
Defended Amazon.com against privacy claims raised by subject of book that was self-published by third parties through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing program. Court found Amazon.com immune from liability under Section 230, granting its motion for judgment on the pleadings. (2011)
Snyder v. Phelps
Submitted amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to decide that intrusion and intentional infliction of emotional distress claims cannot be based solely on the publication of offensive opinions about matters of public concern. The Court agreed, ruling 8-1 that the speech at issue was shielded by the First Amendment. Read the amicus brief. (2011)
Hollingsworth v. Perry
Represented national media coalition in expedited proceedings over the course of a week in the U.S. District Court, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Chief Judge Vaughn Walker's proposal to broadcast trial proceedings to five overflow courtrooms in five cities and to make the proceedings publicly available on YouTube.com in this landmark federal constitutional challenge to California's Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriage. Read the Media Coalition's U.S. Supreme Court brief. (2010)
Production & Pre-publication Counseling
Regularly provides production advice for television programs and documentary films, including "Mad Men," "Weeds" and "Crash"; vets web content for CNN.com and books for publishers, including Sierra Club Books. (Ongoing)
Simpson Strong-Tie v. Gore
Obtained unanimous California Supreme Court decision affirming the summary dismissal by the trial and appellate courts of a trade libel lawsuit arising from a plaintiff class action attorney's constitutionally-protected efforts to locate potential class representatives, which established the precedent that the "commercial speech" exemption (CCP 425.17(c)) to California's anti-SLAPP statute is to be narrowly construed to protect First Amendment activities. (2010)
Stewart v. Rolling Stone Magazine
Represented Rolling Stone Magazine to successfully dismiss right of publicity claims brought by a putative class of musicians that arose out of a gatefold editorial feature published adjacent to a cigarette advertisement. In this issue of first impression, the Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed plaintiffs' claims finding that the gatefold was protected under the First Amendment. (2010)
In re Adams County Historical Society v. Kinyoun
Reversing more than a century of secrecy, obtained a unanimous opinion from the Nebraska Supreme Court that the names of some 1,600 former residents buried anonymously between 1890 and 1959 at the Hastings Regional Center, the state's largest mental health cemetery, are public under the state's Public Records Act. (2009)
Club Members for an Honest Election v. Sierra Club
Obtained unanimous California Supreme Court ruling for Sierra Club, dismissing a lawsuit targeting the environmental organization's First Amendment-protected election activities, and establishing the precedent that the "public interest" exemption (CCP 425.17(b)) to California's anti-SLAPP statute is to be narrowly construed to protect First Amendment activities. (2008)
Mark v. Nextweb
Obtained voluntary dismissal of class action lawsuit asserting unfair competition claims against mobile advertising companies. (2009)
Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights v. U.S. Treasury
Successfully prosecuted Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to compel the public disclosure of documents reflecting individuals mistakenly identified on the federal government's public terrorist watch list. (Ongoing)
Chamber of Commerce of the United States v. Servin, et al.
Defending the free speech rights of the Yes Men against trademark claims filed after the Yes Men performed a political parody of the Chamber's controversial position on global climate change. (Ongoing)
Taus v. Loftus
Obtained dismissal of claims (in the Court of Appeal and California Supreme Court) in complex defamation and invasion of privacy lawsuit against prominent psychologists and national magazine arising from the scientific debate over “repressed memories” of alleged sexual abuse. (2007)
Savage v. Council on American-Islamic Relations
Obtained summary dismissal of a copyright/RICO lawsuit brought by conservative syndicated radio talk show host Michael Savage targeting the free speech rights of the nation's largest Muslim civil rights organization. (2008)