Sarah Burns

Associate

I believe in truth and your right to uncover and tell it.

Sarah Burns is a member of the firm's media group where she defends against defamation claims, fights government secrecy, and provides pre-broadcast review for content of all kinds.

Sarah's practice also includes copyright, trademark, privacy, and right-of-publicity litigation, and protecting journalists and production companies against subpoenas.

Prior to practicing law, Sarah worked as a newspaper editor.

Practice Highlights

Defamation/Anti-SLAPP

Defending journalists, authors, and media companies against libel, privacy, right-of-publicity, and newsgathering claims.

Public records & access lawsuits

Litigating public records lawsuits to make public information about: police misconduct throughout California following California's passage of S.B. 1421 and S.B. 16, including successful lawsuits against the California Attorney General, California Highway Patrol, BART, and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Other public records wins include a settlement with the City of Los Angeles forcing the release of information showing failing homelessness policies and an investigation into the City of Vallejo showing officials destroyed records of controversial police shootings and misclassified cases where citizens died following serious police force as accidental deaths.

Pre-broadcast and IP counseling

Providing pre-broadcast defamation, fair use, and privacy counseling,for newspapers, documentaries, podcasts, and scripted television. Recent projects include "Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal," "America's Most Wanted", "In The Know," "Invincible," "Smiling Friends," "Yolo," and others.

Informed California Foundation v. City of Vallejo

Represented news organization in public records lawsuit against the City of Vallejo that forced release of hundreds of records of police misconduct and revealed city officials had destroyed records of controversial police shootings.

Resolute Forest Products, Inc. et al. v. Greenpeace International, et al.

Obtained dismissal of a $100 million defamation action brought by a forestry company arising from Greenpeace's speech about the impact of the company's activities on the environment. The court granted our summary judgment motion, finding no actual malice. (N.D. Cal. 2023)

First Amendment Coalition v. Bonta

Represented KQED in long-running case against the California Attorney General that twice went up to the California Court of Appeal, resulting in two published opinions favorably interpreting California's landmark transparency statute, S.B. 1421.

Calvert v. Fox Television Stations et al.

Defended Los Angeles television station KTTV and its journalists in a defamation case arising from news reports about a lawsuit against a prominent plastic surgeon. The California Court of Appeal granted the news defendants' anti-SLAPP motion and dismissed all claims against them. 2022 WL 1657227 (2022)

Admitted to Practice

California, 2018
U.S. District Court, Central District of California
U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
U.S. District Court, Southern District of California

Education

J.D., University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, 2018
- Order of the Coif
- Statue of Justice, Order of Barristers, 2018
- Champion, Roscoe Pound Moot Court, 2017
- Co-chair, Homelessness Prevention Clinic
B.A., English Language and Literature, University of California, Berkeley, 2014, with Honors

Background

- Litigation Associate, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, Los Angeles, 2018-2020
- Summer Associate, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, Los Angeles, 2017
- Research Assistant to Professor Richard Re, UCLA, Los Angeles, 2016-2017
- Judicial Extern, Hon. Kim McLane Wardlaw, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, Pasadena, Calif., 2016
- Digital Editor, The Las Vegas Sun, Las Vegas, 2014-2015
- Editor-in-Chief and President, The Daily Californian, Berkeley, Calif., 2013-2014

04.21.2023

News

Defamation, IP, Other Litigation

Court Dismisses Forest Company's $100 Million Defamation Suit Against Greenpeace Read More

June 2021

Publications

Media & Entertainment

Co-author, "Die Hard: Will Constitutional Roadblocks and a Lack of Consensus Stall Section 230 Reform?," MLRC Bulletin Read More

06.01.20

Advisories