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Timothy L. Alger has been a media lawyer for the past fifteen years, which, in turn, followed a dozen years as a newspaper reporter and editor.  Mr. Alger emphasizes First Amendment, intellectual property, and entertainment litigation.  He has defended many of the nation’s largest news media, Internet and entertainment industry clients in both the trial and appellate courts, against claims for defamation, invasion of privacy, trademark and copyright infringement, unfair business practices, and breach of contract. 

Mr. Alger's expertise also has become increasingly valuable to non-media clients, as companies become more involved in cyberspace, and he has represented a broad range of businesses in disputes over Internet postings.  Mr. Alger also represents news media clients in litigation seeking access to public records and government proceedings, and in challenges to subpoenas.  He also has substantial trial experience as a general business litigator.

Mr. Alger also supervises the firm's pro bono special education advocacy project, in which Quinn Emanuel associates represent students and their parents in due-process hearings to obtain appropriate assistance from Southern California school districts.  In the past six months, Quinn Emanuel associates have taken four cases to trial, obtaining valuable experience in adversarial hearings while contributing to the community.

Los Angeles Times
Google, Inc.
Lycos, Inc.
Mattel, Inc.
Forbes, Inc.
Shogokukan, Inc.
Houghton Mifflin Company
Tribune Company
Condé Nast
Alliance Atlantis Communications, Inc.

Represented Lycos, Inc. and its subsidiaries in Carafano v. Metrosplash.com, Inc., 339 F.3d 1119 (9th Cir. 2003), in which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed and expanded the absolute immunity for interactive Internet websites under the Communications Decency Act, 42 U.S.C. § 230.

Represented Roomate.com, LLC in litigation over the application of housing laws to internet matching services.  Obtained summary judgment for our client; the dispute is now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Obtained the dismissal of a complaint for libel, trademark infringement, and racketeering against a national business magazine accused of manipulating the stock market by publishing an article critical of the plaintiff company.

Obtained an order, which was affirmed on appeal, striking the complaint of plaintiffs who alleged that our client, which offers the world's most popular Internet search engine, committed libel and engaged in unfair business practices by excerpting and presenting users with negative statements about plaintiffs.

Obtained summary judgment for a television network sued for libel and invasion of privacy for broadcasting the arrest of the plaintiff during a police ride-along show.

Obtained a jury verdict for a national book publisher that was accused, by a textbook author, of breach of contract for allegedly failing to adequately promote and sell the plaintiff's books.

Obtained an order striking the complaint of a plaintiff who asserted that our client, a major metropolitan newspaper, committed libel and invasion of privacy by reporting about the suspicious death of a family member.

Obtained a favorable settlement, on the eve of arbitration hearing, for a major metropolitan newspaper that terminated a long-term contract with a printer because of alleged pricing irregularities.

Obtained a favorable settlement of four class-action lawsuits against a major book publisher that attributed a ghostwritten national bestseller to a deceased author.

Obtained a watershed ruling in the California Court of Appeal on behalf of a major metropolitan newspaper, holding that a person seeking government documents ""prevails,"" and is entitled to recover all attorney fees from the government, when the court orders the disclosure of some, but not all, the requested documents. 

Obtained dismissal of a lawsuit against two major publishers and three well-known authors who were accused of defrauding the government by using crime-scene photographs in best-selling books about the O.J. Simpson murder investigation and trial.

Obtained summary judgment for publisher and author who, in a scholarly biography of Walt Disney, challenged the accuracy of an earlier biography.

Successfully defended, including bringing a successful writ to the California Court of Appeal, a defamation and invasion of privacy action asserting that a news program used a tape-recorded interview of the plaintiff without permission.

Obtained summary judgment, and affirmance by the Ninth Circuit, for a major pharmaceutical company seeking to preclude a religious advocacy organization from obtaining proprietary clinical trials data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.