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MATTHEW L. SCHAFER
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Partner |
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Matthew L. Schafer advises and defends news and entertainment clients in content-related matters. Clients value his steady judgment—especially when decisions must be made quickly and under scrutiny.
Matt represents clients across all media. His practice spans the full lifecycle of content, from advising on routine editorial, production, and newsgathering matters to litigating complex defamation, privacy, and copyright claims. He also litigates for access to public records and defends against subpoenas for newsgathering materials in state, federal, and military courts. And, he counsels clients on other sensitive issues, including responding to search warrants, grand jury investigations, and the arrest of journalists in the field.
Matt has navigated high-profile disputes opposite public officials and figures, drawing on his diverse background: as a lawyer at the media defense firm Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz; as in-house litigation counsel for Paramount Global, defending CBS News, Showtime, and Simon & Schuster; and as newsroom counsel to BuzzFeed News, where he fielded day-to-day issues from its bureaus around the world. In these capacities, he has advised executive leadership, talent, and editorial staff.
Matt is a recognized authority on press freedom, having been published by Oxford University Press, the Journal of Free Speech Law, and the Federal Communications Law Journal. His colleagues in the bar have repeatedly relied on his work in their briefing, and federal and state judges have invoked his research in cases implicating the First Amendment.
In 2025, members of the New York City Bar Association elected Matt to serve on its Board of Directors. Matt also teaches Journalism & the Law at Fordham University School of Law and often writes on press freedom for the popular press, including in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
A Third Possibility: The Press Clause at the Founding, 36 Fordham Intell. Prop. Media & Ent. L.J. --- (forthcoming)
Litigating History: Practical Observations on the Use of History in Litigation, Am. Bar Assoc. Communications Lawyer (Spring 2025)
A Duty to Impeach: Defamation and Power after Dobbs, 88 Mo. L. Rev. 811 (2023)
The Application of the New York Anti-SLAPP Scheme in Federal Court, 2 J. of Free Speech L. 573 (2023)
An American Freedom: The Intelligentsia and Freedom of the Press after Blackstone, 127 Penn St. L. Rev. 455 (2023)
Protecting Free Speech in a Post-Sullivan World, 70 Fed. Commc’ns L. Rev. 1 (2023)
Does Houchins v. KQED, Inc. Matter?, 70 Buffalo L. Rev. 1331 (2022)
In Defense: New York Times v. Sullivan, 82 La. L. Rev. 81 (2021)
National Security and Access, a Structural Perspective, 11 J. Nat’l Sec. L. & Pol’y 689 (2021)
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ADJUNCT PROFESSOR
Fordham University School of Law
Journalism & the Law
ASSOCIATIONS
New York City Bar Association
Board of Directors
New York City Bar Association
Committee Chair, Communications
and Media Law Committee (fmr.)
Media Law Resource Center
Co-Chair, NextGen Committee (fmr.)
American Bar Association Forum on Communications Law
Member, Training & Development
Committee (fmr.)
EDUCATION
Georgetown University Law Center
(JD, cum laude, 2013)
Louisiana State University
(Masters of Mass Communication)
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
(Bachelor of Media Studies, 2009)
BAR ADMISSIONS
New York
District of Columbia
Maryland
COURT ADMISSIONS
U.S. Court of Appeals
Ninth Circuit
D.C. Circuit
U.S. District Court
District of Columbia
Southern District of New York
Eastern District of New York
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