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Desktop Image: Selina Laren
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Selina MacLaren

Associate

T 213.633.6800 Los Angeles
As a defender of content creators and storytellers, I believe the First Amendment is first for a reason.
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Selina MacLaren helps media clients create and defend their content. An advocate of the First Amendment, she brings to the table experience in both the private and nonprofit sectors, and on both coasts. Her practice covers a wide range of speech- and press-related litigation, including defamation, copyright, Section 230, reporters’ subpoena defense, idea submission claims, internet speech, prior restraint, UK press law, and SLAPP. She is a part of DWT’s team working in partnership with the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund to assist individuals who come forward with accounts of sexual assault and want to mitigate their risk of facing defamation claims. In addition, she works to promote government transparency and aid news reporters in developing their stories by using FOIA, access litigation, emergency petitions, and advocacy to make public records more readily available.

Selina speaks and writes publicly on First Amendment trends and the rich and evolving area of law where internet and speech intersect. Before joining DWT, Selina was the Stanton Foundation Free Press/National Security Legal Fellow at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington, D.C., where she focused on national security, data privacy, and free expression issues, including “leaks” to the news media. She also has experience in commercial and white-collar litigation.

Practice Highlights

Libel defense

Defended one of the biggest-selling daily newspapers in the United Kingdom in a libel lawsuit that challenged reporting on allegations of abuse in the entertainment industry posted on Twitter.

Public records and access lawsuits

Litigating public records and access lawsuits, including an action that unsealed records of the California Governor’s Office seeking approval from the California Supreme Court to grant clemency to a former state senator convicted of election-related crimes. Additionally, at a prior position, an action to change sealing procedures in federal district court in D.C. for court records related to electronic surveillance conducted in connection with criminal investigations.

Amicus

Wrote amicus briefs in a number of cases, including, at a prior position, in United States Supreme Court cases dealing with felons’ ability to access social media; Microsoft’s challenge to a warrant seeking electronic data stored overseas; and warrantless acquisition of cell-site location information.
*Denotes experience prior to joining Davis Wright Tremaine
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Admitted to Practice

  • California, 2015
  • U.S. District Court Central District of California
  • U.S. District Court District of Arizona

Education

  • J.D., University of Chicago Law School, 2014
    • Comments Editor, Chicago Journal of International Law
    • Rubenstein Scholar
    • Research assistant for Professor Geoffrey Stone
  • B.A., Political Economy, University of California, Berkeley, 2010, with highest honors
    • Phi Beta Kappa

Languages

  • Danish

Memberships & Affiliations

    • Adjunct Professor of Advanced Media Law, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

Background

    • Stanton National Security and Free Press Legal Fellow, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Washington, D.C., 2016-2018
    • Associate, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, Washington, D.C., 2014-2016
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