Prominent defamation law firm Meier Watkins Phillips Pusch LLP, which is recognized by Chambers & Partners as a leading U.S. firm for Plaintiff’s-side First Amendment Litigation and High-Net Worth Defamation & Reputation Management, recently announced several new additions to its ranks of attorneys.

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MWPP Team

Joining the firm as Senior Counsel is renowned First Amendment and defamation law expert Rodney A. Smolla, who recently elected to step down as President of the Vermont Law and Graduate School to focus on representing clients in private practice, and teaching constitutional and media law. Smolla has published numerous books and scholarly articles on defamation and First Amendment law—including the influential treatise “The Law of Defamation,” which has been cited in multiple Supreme Court opinions. After earning his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his law degree from Duke University, where he graduated first in his class, Smolla clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit before beginning his career in private practice with the Chicago office of (then) Mayer, Brown, and Platt. He then began a long and distinguished career in academia which included teaching law at DePaul University, the University of Illinois, the University of Arkansas, William & Mary, visiting professorships at Duke, the University of Denver, and the University of Georgia, and serving as Dean of the University of Richmond School of Law, Dean of the Washington and Lee University School of Law, President of Furman University, Dean of the Widener University Delaware School of Law, and most recently President of the Vermont Law and Graduate School.

Throughout his academic career, Smolla has been sought out by clients to lend his expertise to important First Amendment cases. His successful advocacy before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit against the publisher of a hitman instruction manual in Rice v. Paladin Enterprises, Inc., is chronicled in his book Deliberate Intent (1999), which was later made into a movie in which Smolla was portrayed by Oscar-winning actor Timothy Hutton. Smolla argued the case of Virginia v. Black before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003, and he recently was part of the legal team representing Dominion Voting Systems in its landmark case against Fox News—along with several other attorneys now at Meier Watkins.

“We are honored to have Rod Smolla join our firm as Senior Counsel,” said Meier Watkins Phillips Pusch Managing Partner Andy Phillips. “Rod is a true titan of the field, and we are beyond thrilled that he will now bring his considerable expertise to bear representing and advising Meier Watkins clients.” Smolla called the move “really exciting,” adding, “When I decided I was ready to reinvigorate my attention to private practice, I immediately identified Meier Watkins as the firm I wanted to work with. Although the firm is relatively young, it is stocked with enviable legal talent, and it rapidly established itself as one of the leading defamation law firms in the country.”

In addition to Smolla, Meier Watkins also hired two additional litigators, bringing its current ranks to eleven full-time attorneys. Joining the firm as an Associate is Archith Ramkumar. Ramkumar, who graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2013, earning Order of the Coif honors, began his career clerking on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. After beginning his career in private practice at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, Ramkumar devoted several years to government service, including most recently serving as Appellate Counsel at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Devin Bolger, who graduated summa cum laude from the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law in 2018, also joins the firm as an Associate after previous stints at Devine, Millimet & Branch, P.A., and Dinsmore & Scholl LLP.

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