The Uniform Public Expression Protection Act and Anti-SLAPP Practice from Start to Finish

Jay D. Adkisson, Managing Partner | Adkisson Pitet LLP

Jay Adkisson is a Managing Partner of Adkisson Pitet LLP whose practice covers creditor-debtor litigation, asset protection and wealth preservation, captive insurance companies and insurance and reinsurance litigation, and antiSLAPP litigation. He served as an ABA Advisor to the Uniform Law Commission drafting committee for the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act and is the author, with Carl A. Berthold Jr., of Anti-SLAPP Law Modernized: The Uniform Public Expression Protection Act (UPEPA), a phrase-by-phrase examination of the statute. He has twice been an expert witness to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, contributes to Forbes.com on wealth preservation, and has lectured to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service on judgment enforcement issues.

• Education & Credentials

Jay earned his Juris Doctor with honors from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 1988, where he was a member of the Oklahoma Law Review. He has been admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Oklahoma (1989), Texas (1993), California (2007), Nevada (2012), and Arizona (2012).

• Recognition & Leadership

Jay is an honorary member of the California Association of Judgment Professionals, a Hall of Fame member of the National Association of Estate Planning Councils, a Fellow of the American College of LLC and Partnership Attorneys and serves as Master of the Bench in the Howard D. McKibben Inn of Court since 2016.

• Professional Involvement

Jay served as ABA Advisor to the drafting committees of the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act, the Uniform Protected Series Act, the Uniform Registration of Canadian Money Judgments Act, and the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act. He has also chaired the American Bar Association Committees on Captive Insurance and on Insurance and Financial Products.

• Experience

Jay has published hundreds of articles on his areas of emphasis and authored several books including AntiSLAPP Law Modernized: The Uniform Public Expression Protection Act (UPEPA) (Amazon 2022), The Charging Order Practice Guide (American Bar Association 2018), Asset Protection: Concepts & Strategies (McGraw-Hill 2003), and Adkisson’s Captive Insurance Companies (iUniverse 2006). He served as a panelist for the National Business Institute on Anti-SLAPP Law Modernized: The Uniform Public Expression Protection Act and writes extensively on UPEPA developments, including the commercial speech exception examined in Boshears, the first UPEPA order issued in the Project Veritas case, and recent UPEPA fee awards upheld after voluntary dismissals.

Caesar Kalinowski IV, Counsel | Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

his Caesar Kalinowski IV takes an expansive view of clients’ intellectual First Amendment and property rights, regularly litigating cases involving freedom of expression, civil rights, copyright, trademark, and government regulation of technological advances. He also advises media and tech companies during production of creative content and news articles, with expertise in national security issues drawn from multiple special operations tours overseas with the United States Marine Corps and the intelligence services.

• Education & Credentials

Caesar earned his J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law with honors, where he received the Dean’s Medal, served as President of the Military Law Association, was a member of the Latina/o Law Students Association, and sat on the Moot Court Honor Board. He earned his B.A. in Intelligence Studies from American Military University, magna cum laude, and was named to the President’s List. He is admitted to practice in Washington, the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth, Eighth, Ninth, Eleventh, and D.C. Circuits, and multiple U.S. District Courts.

• Recognition & Leadership

Caesar has been named “One to Watch” by Best Lawyers in Appellate Practice from 2024 to 2026, in Commercial Litigation from 2024 to 2026, in Litigation, Intellectual Property from 2024 to 2026, and in Entertainment and Sports Law in 2026. He was selected to Washington Rising Stars by Thomson Reuters in 2025, received the Chief Justice Mary E. Fairhurst Award of Merit from the Washington State Bar Association in 2023, and received the Julie Orr Heart of Justice Award from Davis Wright Tremaine in 2019.

• Professional Involvement

Caesar serves as Appellate Practice Committee Co-Chair of the M3 Federal Bar Association, a Board Member of the World Affairs Council, Seattle, History Chair of the Washington State Bar Licensure Task Force, a Washington Attorney General Veterans Advisory Board Member, the Ninth Circuit Appellate Lawyer Representative from 2023 to 2026, former Chair and current Board Member of the Washington State Veterans Bar Association, and a member of the Latina/o Bar Association of Washington.

• Experience

Caesar clerked for the Honorable Richard C. Tallman of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review in Seattle. He also served as a legal extern with the Washington State Supreme Court, as a law clerk with the United States Attorney’s Office in Seattle, and as a summer associate with Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. He served in the United States Marine Corps from 2004 to 2014.

Thomas R. Burke, Partner | Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

Tom Burke defends speech and content across all mediums, representing internet companies, networks, studios, book, magazine and news publishers, and authors, journalists, photographers, documentary filmmakers, and environmental groups. With over thirty years of trial and appellate experience in California’s state and federal courts, Tom’s practice covers the full spectrum of content liability issues including First Amendment and the defense of libel, privacy, and copyright claims. He is a veteran newsroom lawyer who regularly provides pre-publication counseling and defends journalists facing subpoenas for unpublished information and confidential sources, and has successfully handled hundreds of anti-SLAPP motions.

• Education & Credentials

Tom earned his J.D. magna cum laude from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1989 and his B.S. in Broadcast Journalism magna cum laude from Arizona State University in 1984. He has been admitted to practice in California since 1989 and before the U.S. Supreme Court since 2006.

• Recognition & Leadership

Tom has been named one of “America’s Leading Lawyers for Business” by Chambers USA in First Amendment Litigation (Nationwide) from 2018 to 2025 and in Media & Entertainment: First Amendment Litigation (California) from 2003 to 2025, receiving the Band 1 ranking from 2023 to 2025. He has been selected by Best Lawyers as San Francisco’s Lawyer of the Year in First Amendment Litigation in 2015, 2021, 2023, and 2025, named a Litigation Trailblazer by the National Law Journal in 2022, and recognized as one of “500 Leading Global Entertainment, Sports & Media Lawyers” by Lawdragon in 2025.

• Professional Involvement

Tom serves as Chair of the DWT Pro Bono and Public Service Committee since 2018 and as a Lecturer in Law & Ethics at the Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley since 2002. He sits on the National Board of Advisors of the Cronkite School of Journalism and serves as Legal Advisor to the First Amendment Coalition and the Student Press Law Center, and is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee.

• Experience

Tom is the author of Anti-SLAPP Litigation, published by The Rutter Group since 2013. He secured the dismissal of Planet Aid v. The Center for Investigative Reporting, a long-running libel lawsuit challenging nearly eighty statements and twenty publications about an investigation into the plaintiffs’ ties to a Danish cult. He defended Yelp in Hassell v. Bird, the California Supreme Court decision upholding Yelp’s due process and free speech rights under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. He litigates public records lawsuits across California, including S.B. 1421 cases against the California Attorney General, California Highway Patrol, and BART.

Laura Lee Prather, Partner | Chair, Media Law Practice Group | Haynes Boone LLP

Recognized nationally and internationally as a fearless freedom of expression advocate, Laura Lee Prather was awarded The American Lawyer’s inaugural Tony Mauro Media Lawyer Award for her efforts advocating for legislation to strengthen First Amendment rights, including advocacy for free speech rights at the statehouse and the courthouse. Board Certified in Civil Appellate Law, Laura represents content providers including online and traditional publications, cable and terrestrial broadcasters, streaming media platforms, podcasts, production companies, and music and sports entities at the trial and appellate court level in First Amendment, anti-SLAPP, and intellectual property disputes.

• Education & Credentials

Laura is Board Certified in Civil Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. She practices from the Austin and Houston offices of Haynes Boone.

• Recognition & Leadership

Laura has been recognized in Chambers USA for First Amendment Litigation, Nationwide from 2017 to 2025, named a BTI Client Service All-Star, recognized by The American Lawyer as one of the forty-five best young women lawyers in the nation, and received the Texas Daily Newspaper Association’s Legacy Award as the first woman to do so. She was named Texas Association of Broadcasters’ Associate of the Year and selected as one of Texas Lawyer’s Extraordinary Women in Texas Law. In 2022 and 2023 she was selected as a Fulbright Scholar, and her TEDxSurrey talk “The Assault on Free Speech” was named a TED Editor’s Pick.

• Professional Involvement

Laura served as an American Bar Association Advisor to the Uniform Law Commission’s Model Anti-SLAPP Committee, which wrote the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act adopted by the ULC in 2020, and now works with the ULC Enactment Committee to have it serve as a model in all fifty states. She serves on the Public Participation Project’s National Board of Directors, was appointed to the European Commission Expert Group Against SLAPP, and served as an Advisor to the Council of Europe’s Anti-SLAPP Expert Working Group. She also serves as General Counsel for the Legislative Advisory Committee of the Texas Press Association.

• Experience

Laura testified before multiple state legislatures and before Congress on the need for anti-SLAPP laws and has argued a significant number of anti-SLAPP motions and appeals at every level. She co-authored definitive law review articles on the Texas Citizens Participation Act with Texas Supreme Court Justice Jane Bland, including “Bullies Beware: Safeguarding Constitutional Rights Through Anti SLAPP In Texas” (47 Tex. Tech L. Rev. 725), which received The Franklin Jones Best CLE Article from the Texas Bar College. She authored “SLAPP Suits: An Encroachment on Human Rights of a Global Proportion and What Can Be Done About It” in 22 Northwestern Human Rights Law Journal No. 2 (2023). She was instrumental in the passage of the Texas Citizens Participation Act and led coalitions to pass the reporters’ privilege, the Defamation Mitigation Act, and the neutral reportage privilege in Texas.

SESSION 1 – Pre-Motion Mechanics | 1:00pm – 1:30pm

Tests the complaint against UPEPA’s scope, structures the client engagement, drafts the warning letter to plaintiff, and coordinates ancillary filings including the answer and Rule 11 sanctions to position the special motion before it is ever filed.

SESSION 2 – The Special Motion | 1:30pm – 2:00pm

Frames the evidence considered, works opening, opposition, and reply briefing through burden-of-proof shifts on scope, pleading viability, and evidentiary viability, sets hearing strategy under expedited timelines, and addresses the ruling and its effect, with attention to costs, expenses, and attorney fees.

BREAK | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

SESSION 3 – The Automatic Stay | 2:10pm – 2:40pm

Maps the reach of the automatic stay triggered by filing of the special motion, including its freeze on discovery and its operation across other pending motions and matters that would otherwise advance the underlying case.

SESSION 4 – Post-Motion Mechanics | 2:40pm – 3:10pm

Pursues recovery of costs, expenses, and attorney’s fees following a successful special motion and works the accelerated appeal, delivering a procedural playbook that runs from the post-ruling fee petition through appellate disposition.