Greenberg Glusker Welcomes Free Speech Attorney Douglas E. Mirell
February 5, 2018 – Press ReleaseLOS ANGELES – February 5, 2018 - Greenberg Glusker is pleased to announce that Douglas E. Mirell has joined the firm as a partner in the firm’s Litigation group. Mr. Mirell will continue his corporate and business litigation practice working with companies and individuals in media and entertainment on First Amendment, invasion of privacy and defamation claims; publicity rights disputes; anti-SLAPP motions; copyright and trademark infringement actions; new and traditional media law issues; enforcement of civil rights statutes; voting rights litigation; freedom of information, public records and other government access statutes.
“We are proud to have an attorney of Doug’s stature and reputation join our firm,” says Greenberg Glusker’s Managing Partner Bob Baradaran. “We always welcome attorneys who are best in class in their fields as well as those who live the values of our firm by representing clients who uphold First Amendment values and who work to ensure equal access to justice.”
Mr. Mirell has held several leadership positions during many decades of service on the boards of directors of both the ACLU and ACLU Foundation of Southern California. From 2005-2011, he served as a City-appointed Commissioner of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, including terms as its Chair and Vice-Chair. Mr. Mirell was a founder of the California-based Progressive Jewish Alliance and a founding board member of its national successor, Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice.
He has taught Constitutional Law (First Amendment) at the USC Gould School of Law and Legal Journalism at Loyola Law School. Mr. Mirell has also undertaken pro bono litigation on behalf of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California, Society of Professional Journalists, Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles, Bet Tzedek Legal Services and Public Counsel.
“I have long admired the attorneys at Greenberg Glusker, and consider many of them my friends,” says Mr. Mirell. “My practice and clients will feel at home here.”
Because of his prominence in the entertainment industry, Mr. Mirell was instrumental in providing the legal analysis that helped win passage of two important pieces of California legislation affecting the rights of celebrities in the entertainment community: Senate Bill 771 (2007), authored by former State Senator Sheila Kuehl, which clarified that the statutory post-mortem right of publicity applies to those celebrities who predeceased that law’s original effective date of January 1, 1985; and Senate Bill 606 (2013), authored by State Senator Kevin de León, which significantly enhances the criminal penalties and creates a new civil remedy for the harassment of celebrity children under the age of 16 caused by the conduct of aggressive paparazzi.
Before co-founding Harder Mirell & Abrams LLP in January 2013, Mr. Mirell was an attorney with the international law firm of Loeb & Loeb LLP for 32 years, and a partner in the litigation department of its Los Angeles office since 1987.