Jeanette is a frequent speaker on issues relating to First Amendment and media law. For example, in 2010, she was a facilitator for the Defamation in a Digital World session at the 2010 NAA/NAB/MLRC Media Law Conference, and she has spoken on media issues at the National Newspaper Association’s annual convention and the ABA’s National Conference for the Minority Lawyer.  

Jeanette is also active in media bar organizations, playing an instrumental role in establishing the American Bar Association Forum on Communications Law First Amendment and Media Law Diversity Moot Court Competition, an initiative aimed at increasing the diversity of the media bar. Jeanette began a three-year term on the Forum on Communications Law Governing Committee in August 2011.

Before joining LSKS in 2002, Jeanette was a member of the First Amendment and Media Law Practice at Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads, L.L.P., in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Notable Representations

Stepnes v. Ritschel, 663 F.3d 952 (8th Cir. 2011). Jeanette and her LSKS colleagues successfully defended a CBS television station in an action alleging defamation and interference with contract claims arising from a news report on a developer’s “home give-away contest,” including his arrest on a charge of unlawful gambling. The Eighth Circuit affirmed the ruling that the plaintiff was a limited purpose public figure because he had voluntarily thrust himself to the forefront of the pre-existing controversy over the legality of the contest. The court further held that the plaintiff could not satisfy his burden to prove actual malice and that some of the challenged statements were substantially true.

Nomination di Antonio e Paolo Gensini S.N.C. v. H.E.R. Accessories, 2010 WL 4968072 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 6, 2010). Jeanette and Bob Penchina successfully represented various owners of famous cartoon characters in a contributory trademark infringement action, obtaining early dismissal of the claims based on the plaintiff’s failure to plead that the defendants continued to license their characters after obtaining knowledge of the alleged infringements.

In re Guantanamo Bay Detainee Litigation, 624 F. Supp. 2d 27 (D.D.C. 2009). Jeanette and David Schulz represented several news organizations in a successful challenge to the U.S. government’s effort to keep secret the factual record in every habeas corpus proceeding brought by a Guantanamo Bay detainee. The court determined that the public has a First Amendment right to access the records.