Clare Locke LLP

Founded In 2014, by the husband-and-wife team of Tom Clare and Libby Locke, the firm had helped popularize efforts by wealthy and powerful clients to attack news organizations and delegitimize or kill unfavorable articles. Ms. Locke in particular had taken to publicly arguing that much of the news media was unethical, though she also voiced support for free speech. Before starting their boutique defamation shop, Mr. Clare, 53, and Ms. Locke, 44, worked at the giant international law firm of Kirkland & Ellis, where both were partners. In 2016, the firm won a roughly $3 million jury verdict on behalf of a dean at the University of Virginia who had been defamed by a deeply flawed article in Rolling Stone magazine. The firm represented the former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and Project Veritas, the group of right-wing provocateurs, in lawsuits against the New York Times. The Project Veritas case is ongoing.