Leading First Amendment Media Litigator Katie Townsend Rejoins Gibson Dunn as Partner in Los Angeles and D.C.
Firm News | February 3, 2025
Gibson Dunn is pleased to announce that Katie Townsend has rejoined the firm’s Litigation and Media, Entertainment, and Technology Practice Groups as a partner in the Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. offices. Katie’s practice will focus on representing clients on a wide range of First Amendment, media, and technology-focused litigation and advisory matters.
“We are delighted to welcome Katie back to Gibson Dunn,” said partner Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. “Katie is an exceptional litigator who, for the last decade, has made a real impact by winning high-stakes cases on behalf of news organizations and journalists. As media companies and technology platforms face increasingly complex First Amendment issues, Katie’s unique experience and insights will prove invaluable to clients navigating this changing landscape.”
“I am thrilled to be coming home to Gibson Dunn,” said Katie. “I’m returning to private practice at a time when the litigation environment is shifting significantly, and media and technology companies alike are facing new and emerging challenges. I know firsthand that Gibson Dunn’s First Amendment media litigation platform is unmatched, and there is no place I’d rather begin the next chapter of my career than alongside this elite team.”
Gibson Dunn’s Media, Entertainment, and Technology Practice Group’s litigators have a winning track record litigating virtually every kind of dispute that arises in the media, entertainment and technology industries. The firm’s experience encompasses First Amendment issues concerning freedom of speech and of the press, litigation for tech companies over the contours of section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, contractual issues such as profit participation and film finance, as well as intellectual property issues such as copyright, trademark and trade secret, and the right of publicity.
Protecting First Amendment rights has long been a hallmark of Gibson Dunn’s practice. The firm has represented major news organizations and journalists for decades in defamation cases, access to courts matters, subpoena battles, and other matters. The firm played a leading role in overturning the largest defamation verdict in history against a news organization and represented White House correspondents in two separate successful First Amendment/Due Process Clause lawsuits to reinstate their suspended press credentials.
About Katie Townsend
Katie is formerly the Deputy Executive Director and Legal Director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. At the Reporters Committee, Katie oversaw the organization’s legal services portfolio, including its litigation, vetting/pre-publication review, and amicus practices. She also led the Reporters Committee’s impact litigation efforts, regularly representing news organizations, journalists, and documentary filmmakers in public records, court access, and legal defense matters.
Katie began her legal career in Gibson Dunn’s Los Angeles office as a summer associate in 2006 and served as an associate from 2007-2014. She earned her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2007, where she was a member of the editorial board of the Virginia Law Review.