The Shapiro Lecture featuring Charles L. “Chip” Babcock

The Trump January 6th (J6) indictment carefully attempts to avoid First Amendment problems  and even includes an homage to free speech. Even so, the criminal statutes  the government relies upon may have constitutional infirmities as a dissenting judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit suggested in United States v. Fischer, a J6 prosecution of three individuals who were present at the event and allegedly assaulted law enforcement officers. To be clear, the First Amendment does not provide a defense to criminal conduct but “sensitive tools” must be employed to place the line between protected and unprotected activity. And statutes that exceed their intended purpose and overly inhibit the exercise of free speech may be unconstitutional either on their face or as applied. The lecture will also consider the First Amendment implications of any gag order (proposed or imposed) in the case.

About the speaker: 

Charles L. “Chip” Babcock graduated from the Boston University Law School where he served as executive editor of the Boston University Law Review. His undergraduate degree is from Brown University where he was a four year member of the rowing team. Between Brown and BU, Chip was a sportswriter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

After law school, he clerked for a federal district judge in Dallas and then joined Jackson Walker where he has remained  his entire career focusing on commercial litigation with a specialty in First Amendment and media law. Several years ago, he was described by the New Republic as a moderately famous First Amendment lawyer, but this spring  the New York Times quoted the president of the Media Law Resource Center and former assistant general counsel of the Times who said that Chip was the top media trial lawyer in the country.

He successfully represented Oprah Winfrey in a six-week jury trial in Amarillo, Texas, and has handled litigation for her ever since. He has represented other celebrities like Dr. Phil, George Lucas, Dr. Oz , and Roger Clemens, as well as political figures like Reggie Love (aide to President Obama), George W. and  George P. Bush, and businessmen such as Warren Buffet. His media clients include CNN, MSNBC, ABC News, CBS, Warner Brothers, Fox News, the New York Times, the Dallas Times Herald, Houston Post and the Dallas Morning News. He has tried 16 media defamation cases to a verdict, winning 14 and losing 2—although, Chip points out, the two loses were reversed and rendered on appeal.

He was named the 2019 Texas trial lawyer of the year and is a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers, ABOTA, and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers.