Libby Locke

Libby is a highly accomplished defamation lawyer and commercial litigator who devotes her practice to representing clients facing high-profile reputational attacks and litigating complex business disputes. Libby has extensive experience representing clients in defamation matters adverse to national print, broadcast, and online media outlets—and she routinely advises clients who are dealing with the media in crisis situations. She has litigated high-profile libel and slander cases and—both in and outside of the litigation process—has obtained prominent corrections, retractions, and apologies for her clients. In the courtroom, Libby was lead trial counsel for Nicole Eramo in a defamation action against Rolling Stone magazine, securing a $3 million jury verdict for the false and defamatory article about an alleged gang-rape at the University of Virginia. Libby is lead appellate counsel for former Gov. Sarah Palin before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals arising out of a false and defamatory article published by The New York Times. She is also actively litigating matters against CNN, Bloomberg, Katie Couric, and Anderson Cooper. Outside the courtroom, some of Libby’s biggest defamation “wins” are stories the public will never hear about; she has killed flawed articles, storylines, and broadcast segments in outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair and The Dr. Oz Show. As a former partner at one of the nation’s premier law firms, Libby also has extensive experience handling complex business disputes in state and federal courts around the country. As a former law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and mentee of senior appellate litigation partners at Kirkland, Libby has extensive experience handling appeals and amicus briefs in the federal Courts of Appeals, the United States Supreme Court and the Virginia Supreme Court. Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, 2011-2014 Associate, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, 2006-2011 Law Clerk to the Honorable Rhesa H. Barksdale, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 2005-2006 Georgetown University Law Center, J.D., cum laude, 2005