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Bruce E. H. Johnson
For today’s communications media — transformed by unprecedented technological change while targeted by novel threats of government censorship and regulation — smart and creative lawyering can be critical.
For more than four decades, Bruce Johnson has handled major First Amendment matters on all subjects - ranging from opposing prior restraints to drafting and pushing for enactment of the state’s reporter’s shield law, and from defending defamation and privacy cases to litigating prisoners’ rights of access to news. He also has been involved in other First Amendment matters including defending commercial speech protections from government attacks; drafting revised ethics rules and arguing for less onerous regulation of lawyers’ advertising and solicitation activities; protecting consumers’ constitutional rights to boycott from litigation attacks; advancing the development of state defamation privilege law to protect communications on matters of public interest from legal liability; opposing government subpoenas of reporters and the press; debating free-speech rights for robots; and drafting and lobbying for an effective correction-clarification statute for libel and similar claims. He is also the co-author of the Practising Law Institute treatise, Advertising and Commercial Speech: A First Amendment Guide.
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Admitted to Practice
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Washington, 1977
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California, 1992
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New York, 2021
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U.S. Supreme Court, 1983
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U.S. District Court Western District of Washington, 1977
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U.S. District Court Eastern District of Washington, 1980
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U.S. District Court Northern District of California, 1992
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U.S. District Court Southern District of California, 1995
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U.S. District Court Eastern District of California, 1995
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U.S. District Court Central District of California, 1992
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U.S. Court of Appeals 6th Circuit, 2019
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U.S. Court of Appeals 8th Circuit, 2004
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U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit, 1978
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U.S. Court of Appeals 10th Circuit, 1984
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U.S. Court of Appeals 11th Circuit, 2019
Education
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M.A., University of Cambridge, 1978
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J.D., Yale Law School, 1977
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B.A., University of Cambridge, 1974
- First Class Honours
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A.B., Harvard College, 1972, magna cum laude
- Phi Beta Kappa
Memberships & Affiliations
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- Adviser, Restatement of the Law Third, Torts: Defamation and Privacy project, American Law Institute, 2020
- Member; Chair, 1999-2000, Media Law and Defamation Torts Committee, Tort and Insurance Practice Section – American Bar Association
- Member; Executive Committee, 2000-2005; President, 2004 – Defense Counsel Section, Media Law Resource Center
- Member, 2003-present; Regulation of Advertising Law Committee, 2013-2015 – Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers
- Board Member, 1992-2020; Chair, 2004-2006; President, 1999-2001 – Seattle Repertory Theatre Board of Trustees
- Board Member, 2006-present; Chair, 2011-present – Seattle Repertory Theatre Foundation Board of Trustees
- Member, National Council for the American Theater, 2005-present
- Board Member, EmcArts Inc., 2007-2013
- President and Board Member, Pacific Musicworks, 2007-present
- Board Member, Seattle Opera, 2015-present
Professional Recognition
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- Named as one of "America's Leading Lawyers for Business" by Chambers USA in First Amendment Litigation (Nationwide), 2007-2017, 2019-2021
- Named by Best Lawyers as Seattle's "Lawyer of the Year" in First Amendment, 2012, 2014, 2015
- Named as one of the "Best Lawyers in America" in First Amendment Law by Best Lawyers, 1993-present; named in Ethics and Professional Responsibility Law, 2010-present; in Litigation - First Amendment 2011; in Media Law 2013; in Advertising Law, 2023
- Selected to "Top 100 Washington Super Lawyers," 2012-2013; "Washington Super Lawyers," Thomson Reuters, 2008-2022
- Named as one of "155 Top Lawyers" by Seattle Magazine and Seattle Business Monthly, 2007
- Avvo rated
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