Jackson Walker partner Shannon Zmud Teicher spoke on a panel during the Dallas Bar Association’s Bench Bar Conference on April 12, 2023. The program, entitled “First Amendment and Free Speech: A Primer on the Cases We Should Know,” also featured U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr (Northern District of Texas), Thomas Leatherbury (Thomas S. Leatherbury Law), Thomas Williams (Haynes and Boone), and Meg Penrose (Texas A&M University School of Law).

During the discussion, the panel covered:

• the intersection of religious liberty and free speech (303 Creative LLC v. Elenis);
• the coverage and potential limits of Section 230 immunity (Gonzalez v. Google);
• potential social media regulation (HB 20);
• whether the Court is likely to revisit the actual malice standard and in what context  (NY Times v. Sullivan); and
• the intersection of parody and free speech with the protections under trademark law (Jack Daniel’s Properties v. VIP Products).

Based in Dallas, Shannon is an advocate and counselor with deep experience in intellectual property, media, and technology. Her practice consists of advising and litigating for clients in the areas of trademark, copyright, social media, advertising, marketing, and entertainment. She routinely assists clients with defending defamation, libel, privacy, and related claims; defending subpoenas in both criminal and civil courts; pursuing public records and enforcing open meeting laws; and securing access to courtrooms. In 2022, Shannon was named among the Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America.

Shannon is board member of the Texas Women’s Foundation, a past chair of the Media Law Resource Center’s Pre-Publication/Pre-Broadcast Committee, and a past chair of the Dallas Bar Association’s Media Relations Committee. She is also a member of the American Bar Association’s Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section.