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Desktop Image: Abigail Everdell
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Abigail Everdell

Counsel

T 212.603.6468 New York
Content carries risk, but it doesn't have to be a gamble. I can help shine a light on where risks lie, and will passionately defend your right to take them.
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Abigail Everdell counsels and defends clients in a wide range of media, intellectual property and First Amendment matters. In counseling, Abigail provides clients a clear picture of legal and practical risks, and how to navigate them. She has extensive experience providing pre-publication review for newspapers and websites, documentary films and series, scripted content, podcasts, and books for a broad array of clients including The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Trace, The Messenger, Global Witness, Vice, and Buzzfeed. In litigation, Abigail draws from her extensive experience in both state and federal courts, providing vigorous and strategically minded representation to clients in high-visibility matters involving defamation, copyright, privacy law, anti-SLAPP, reporter's privilege, advertising, and access, as well as in her media clients' general commercial and contractual disputes.

Abigail also regularly advises tech and other non-traditional-media organizations on content and speech policies, Section 230, and the rapidly changing landscape of social media content legislation. In 2021, she spent six months seconded to Meta as product counsel for news.

Abigail has authored amicus briefs for the Supreme Court and Federal Appeals Courts concerning the broader free speech and press freedom implications of federal laws, doctrines, and executive orders. She serves on the associate board of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. Abigail worked in music journalism prior to pursuing a legal career.

Practice Highlights

Copyright defense

Defended an author and her publisher against claims from the author's ex-boyfriend that her debut novel infringed his unpublished screenplay. In the face of outrageous and threatening conduct by plaintiff and his counsel, obtained dismissal with prejudice of all copyright claims.

Libel defense

Regularly secures pre-discovery dismissal of defamation (and defamation-in-disguise) claims brought by plaintiffs with outsized resources and a passion for chilling speech.

Pre-publication counseling

In addition to advising news publishers, counsels film and series production clients creating high-risk content, providing guidance from the earliest stages through delivery and distribution.
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Admitted to Practice

  • New York, 2015
  • U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York
  • U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit

Education

  • J.D., Columbia Law School, 2014
    • Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar
    • Editor-in-Chief, Columbia Journal of Law and Arts
    • Michael D. Remer Memorial Award for Aptitude in Arts and Copyright Law, 2014
  • B.A., Comparative Literature, New York University, 2007, magna cum laude

Languages

  • French

Memberships & Affiliations

    • Associate Board Member, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, 2016-present

Professional Recognition

    • Named "One to Watch" by Best Lawyers in Entertainment and Sports Law, 2024-2025; in Intellectual Property Law, 2025
    • Selected to "New York Rising Stars" in Intellectual Property, Thomson Reuters, 2021-2024
    • Received the "Counsel for Justice Award," Davis Wright Tremaine, 2024

Background

    • Associate, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, New York, N.Y., 2014-2016
    • Legal Intern, Tumblr, Inc., New York, N.Y., 2013
    • Legal Intern, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y., 2012
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