Retired Ballard Spahr First Amendment Litigator Lee Levine has received American Lawyer’s 2022 Tony Mauro Media Lawyer Award, which recognizes excellence in advocacy for freedom of the press.
Mr. Levine and George Freeman, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center, were selected for the award “because of their forceful effort to protect the 1964 Supreme Court opinion in New York Times v. Sullivan, a ruling that has often been viewed as the most important decision in the history of freedom of the press.” In 2022, Mr. Levine and Mr. Freeman spearheaded “New York Times v. Sullivan: The Case for Preserving an Essential Precedent,” a 204-page white paper aimed at advising defense lawyers on how to foil libel litigation aimed at overturning the Sullivan precedent.
Mr. Levine and Mr. Freeman share the 2022 Tony Mauro Media Lawyer Award with Ballard Spahr client NPR’s Media Law & Distribution Rights Team, which was honored for its Transparency in Government Program and Freedom of Information Act lawsuits.
Ballard Spahr also won the Tony Mauro Media Lawyer Award in 2020 for its high-profile media defense work and the launch of its Racial Justice and Equality Initiative. Under that initiative, the attorneys of the Media and Entertainment Law Group have provided pro bono representation to media outlets and content creators focused on and serving communities of color throughout the country.
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