Matthew L. Schafer

Matthew L. Schafer is a media lawyer who advises and defends news and entertainment clients in content-related matters. His practice spans the full lifecycle of content, from FOIA and public records work, preproduction advising, and prepublication review to litigating complex defamation, privacy, and copyright claims. He counsels clients responding to search warrants, grand jury investigations, and the arrest of journalists in the field. He also litigates shield law and reporter's privilege issues in federal, state, and military courts. Previously, he was in-house litigation counsel to CBS News, Simon & Schuster, and Showtime. Before that, he was newsroom counsel to BuzzFeed News, where he fielded day-to-day issues from its bureaus around the world.

Matt teaches Journalism & the Law at Fordham University School of Law. He writes regularly on press freedom, having been published by Oxford University Press, the Journal of Free Speech Law, and the Federal Communications Law Journal, as well as in the popular press, including in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. His colleagues in the bar have repeatedly relied on his work in their briefing, and federal and state judges have invoked his research in cases implicating the First Amendment. In 2025, members of the New York City Bar Association elected Matt to serve on its Board of Directors. 

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