Apropos Tuesday's post "Are Employment Lawyers Disclosing the Reputational Risks of Litigation to Their Clients?," Krista Lee Baughman (Dhillon Law) writes about a similar question related to libel law. (Baughman is a prominent libel lawyer, see, e.g., Starbuck v. Meta Platforms, the new Large Libel Models lawsuit.)
[A]s a defamation lawyer, one of the (many) things I flag for clients in the very first consultation is the risk of the "Streisand Effect" if they make their complaints public, along with the fact that their names will forever be tied to their case when they are subject to a background search and potentially also a Google search if the matter gets press. I also flag the possibility that, in cases where the defendant has postured themselves publicly as a "social justice warrior," then even the demand letter we send might be made public by the defendant, e.g. via a social media post claiming that the defendant "spoke up and now is being pressured to abandon their free speech rights," etc.
I think these are essential points to raise in early calls with would-be defamation clients, even if you end up talking yourself out of a job, and I'd counsel employment lawyers to raise the possibility with their clients as well.
I hope other lawyers do the same.
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