Livestream - Litigation Under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983

Ms. Nora Mae Benavidez Related Seminars and Products

Free Press

Nora Benavidez is a civil and human rights attorney. She works at the intersection of law, tech, and democracy as an ‘urgency incubator’ to elevate interdisciplinary solutions to complex threats facing our society.

In all her work, Benavidez fights to eliminate barriers -- legal, technological, or political -- that may diminish the ability for communities to engage in democracy and with each other. Benavidez consults with policymakers and other entities to minimize online manipulation, maligned operations, and other digital harms which affect civic engagement.

Benavidez serves as Senior Counsel and Director, Digital Justice & Civil Rights at Free Press. She leads the organization’s efforts to protect against digital threats to democracy and to push for media and platform accountability. She develops winning policy and regulatory reform solutions that blunt disinformation, hate, and other maligned online practices while protecting digital civil rights, privacy, and equitable speech. She collaborates with and build support from Congress, the White House, and government agencies to advance digital justice while working with and pressuring technology companies to adopt corporate interventions that mitigate harms caused by their services. She has appeared before the House Oversight Committee and the Federal Trade Commission.

Benavidez serves as Faculty Associate at Arizona State University’s Cronkite Institute where she teaches a course on freedom of expression in the digital age. In 2021, she won the Society of Professional Journalists-Los Angeles Chapter Freedom of Information award for her work defending truth and free expression.

Her writing has been featured in The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Tech Policy Press, and other publications. She has been a regular guest on NPR’s The Takeaway and interviewed by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC, Newsweek, NPR’s Here & Now, Teen Vogue, The Los Angeles Times, AJ+, Vox, Columbia Journalism Review, and more.

Previously, Benavidez served as the director of U.S. Free Expression Programs at PEN America, where she guided the organization’s national advocacy agenda on First Amendment and free expression issues. She managed PEN America’s domestic fight for freedom of speech, the right to protest, robust local news, and its disinformation defense program.

She has also worked in private practice and at the ACLU of Georgia, litigating significant cases representing victims of voting rights violation

Mr. George Brian Spears Related Seminars and Products

Spears & Filipovits LLC

 Brian Spears has practiced civil rights litigation in Georgia for forty five years.  He is a specialist in litigation involving governmental liability, primarily in the area of police practices.  He is a partner in the firm of Spears & Filipovitz.  

Mr. Gerald Richard Weber Jr. Related Seminars and Products

Law Office of Gerald Weber

Gerry Weber is principal in The Weber Law Offices and focuses on constitutional, civil rights, libel and media law and general litigation. http://www.constitutional-litigation.com Gerry Weber served for seventeen years as Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. He also currently serves as a Senior Staff Counsel at the Southern Center for Human Rights, and is an Adjunct Professor at Emory University School of Law and Georgia State College of Law in constitutional litigation, media law and the first amendment. Gerry clerked for the Honorable Carolyn Dineen King, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He was named one of the “21 Young Lawyers Leading Us Into the 21 Century” by the American Bar Association and “Top 40 st Achievers under 40" by Georgia Trend Magazine. Gerry Weber has litigated against federal, state and local governments and agencies and some of the largest corporations in the United States. He has successfully struck down numerous laws ranging from state restrictions on the internet to state laws barring fornication and sodomy. He also has chalked up one of the largest monetary awards in the history of the State of Georgia – a $440 million dollar judgment in an international human rights case against a Serbian government torturer.

Mr. Sidney Leighton Moore III Related Seminars and Products

The Moore Law Firm PC

Leighton Moore has practiced law in Atlanta for more than twenty years. He is a graduate of Georgia State University (B.A., Philosophy, 1992), Emory University (M.A., Philosophy, 1997) and Harvard Law School (J.D., 2000). In law school, Leighton served as a research assistant to Professor Frank Michelman and as a teaching assistant in the Department of Government. Upon graduation, he clerked for the late Hon. Richard Sheppard Arnold of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Leighton now has his own practice representing civil plaintiffs in cases involving serious bodily injury or violations of constitutional rights. He has represented individuals with mental illness and developmental disabilities in state criminal proceedings and federal civil-rights cases. His most recent work in this area is focused on civil remedies for police violence against persons with mental illness.

Ms. Meredith Charlotte Kincaid Related Seminars and Products

Cross Kincaid Baskam LLC

Meredith is an appellate attorney dedicated to representing victims and families in catastrophic injury, wrongful death, and consumer protection cases resulting from the negligence or intentional conduct of others. In addition to handling appeals, she and her colleagues at Cross Kincaid Baskam provide trial and strategy support to law firms in a variety of circumstances, including preserving error in the trial court; preparing dispositive or significant motions at all stages of litigation; and research and analysis of key legal issues. 

Before co-founding Cross Kincaid (now Cross Kincaid Baskam), Meredith was a partner at The Summerville Firm, an appellate litigation boutique, and practiced for many years in the business and tort litigation group at Jones Day, where she successfully represented plaintiffs and defendants in a range of high-stakes civil and criminal litigation matters at all stages in state and federal courts. A Tar Heel born and bred, Meredith graduated with honors from the University of Texas School of Law, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Texas Journal on Civil Liberties & Civil Rights and a Pro Bono Scholar. She then clerked for the Honorable James A. Beaty, Jr., former chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. 

Prior to attending law school, Meredith graduated with highest distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, earning her Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance. She went on to earn a Master of Arts in Arts Administration from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and then worked for several years as a professional fundraiser in higher education and the arts. Meredith has previously served as co-chair of the American Constitution Society’s Georgia Lawyer Chapter and co-chair of the Southern Center for Human Rights Ambassadors Leadership Council. She now serves on the Atlanta Judicial Nominating Commission and is a board member of Rise City Dance. 

Mr. Frank Daniel LoMonte Related Seminars and Products

Warner Media

Frank LoMonte is senior legal counsel to the newsroom at Atlanta-based Cable News Network, Inc., and an adjunct professor with the University of Georgia School of Law. A former associate with Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP, LoMonte clerked for judges on the Northern District of Georgia and the Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. His articles about First Amendment topics have been widely published in journals including the Missouri Law Review, Temple Law Review, and many others. He is a 2000 honors graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law, where he taught as the Otis Brumby Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law.