Gibson Dunn Team Earns Litigator of the Week Shout-Out for Appellate Win Under New Jersey Anti-SLAPP Law
Accolades | June 6, 2025
The AmLaw Litigation Daily
Litigation Daily’s Litigator of the Week has recognized a pro bono team of Gibson Dunn lawyers for their precedential appellate win in a New Jersey anti-SLAPP case:
Shout-out to Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner Akiva Shapiro and associate Brian Yeh, who got an appellate win reviving a request for fees under New Jersey’s recently enacted anti-SLAPP law. The Gibson Dunn team represents a Jewish news outlet, two religious groups and a rabbi facing claims related to flyers and posts urging Bergenfield resident Allen Satz to grant his wife a religious divorce. In the first published decision under the state’s Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, New Jersey’s Appellate Division unanimously held last week that Satz’s voluntary dismissal of his complaint didn’t allow him to escape the defendants’ request for fees. Doing so, the court wrote, “would contravene legislative intent and create a loophole in the UPEPA allowing SLAPP plaintiffs to financially harm New Jersey residents who are the subject of their lawsuits and then strategically dismiss their suits, depriving our residents of the statutory right to seek recompense.” The Gibson Dunn team included associates Dillon Westfall, Apratim Vidyarthi, Stephanie Silvano and Beshoy Shokralla.
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Reprinted with permission from the June 6, 2025 edition of “The AmLaw Litigation Daily” © 2025 ALM Global Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited, contact 877-256-2472 or asset-and-logo-licensing@alm.com.