Alison B. Schary

Provides advice for television, newspaper, magazine, website, and book-publishing clients, including The Wall Street Journal, Atlantic Monthly, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Life & Style, and In Touch. (Ongoing)

Defending Washington University School of Law in a libel and invasion of privacy suit arising out of an article by a tenured law professor published in the "Washington University Law Review." Citing to the publicly filed complaint, the article described the allegations in an employment discrimination suit that was ongoing at the time, in which a terminated employee claimed that his supervisor at a Wall Street firm had discriminated against him for being a vegetarian and unmanly. The terminated employee’s former supervisor - who was a defendant in the underlying employment discrimination suit - sued the Law School; motion to dismiss pending. No. 12-7904 (D.N.J. 2012; Ongoing)

Representing photojournalist Philip Datz in a civil-rights lawsuit against Suffolk County Police Sergeant Michael Milton and the County of Suffolk for violation of Mr. Datz’s First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights.  Mr. Datz, a professional photojournalist, was arrested by Sergeant Milton for filming a scene of police activity from a public street, in the presence of other bystanders. The confrontation was captured on video by Mr. Datz and was widely circulated following the incident.  Mr. Datz has brought federal civil rights and state-law claims against Sergeant Milton, as well as a Monell claim against the County of Suffolk and its police department. (E.D.N.Y. Ongoing)

Representing photojournalist and video producer Mannie Garcia in a federal civil rights action against Montgomery County, the Montgomery County Police Department, the Chief of Police, and individual police officers for falsely arresting Mr. Garcia and using excessive force while he filmed another arrest on a public street. (D. Md. Ongoing)

Representing The Associated Press in a copyright infringement action against Meltwater News, a leading international subscription-based electronic media monitoring service that provides daily excerpts from news articles to its subscribers. Rejecting Meltwater's fair use defense, premised on its argument that it acted as a search engine, the federal district court for the Southern District of New York granted AP’s motion for summary judgment on its copyright claim. Damages discovery is ongoing and a trial is scheduled for September. (S.D.N.Y. 2013)

Submitted amicus curiae brief on behalf of The Associated Press, addressing transformative-use analysis in copyright infringement case based on mass digitization of books. (2d Cir. 2013)

Motion to dismiss libel and related claims granted in action brought by widow of Oleg Cassini arising out of a "Vanity Fair" article about the Cassini family. (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2013)

Represented textbook publisher in copyright infringement suit brought by photographers and licensing agencies providing stock photography images. (S.D.N.Y. 2011)