If not for media law, Jackson Walker partner Bob Latham would have been a “full-time dreamer” or something of the like. In a Q&A with the Media Law Resource Center, Jackson Walker’s Media Law chair fielded 10 questions about his career, personal interests, and advice for prospective attorneys.
“If you want to go to law school, make sure you are doing so for the right reasons. And there is not any one right reason,” Bob said when discussing advice he would give to someone considering law school. “Going for the chance to do meaningful work and make a difference in the world is a right reason. And lawyers can make a difference in the world, and can do meaningful work.”
For Bob, the courtroom is game time – part-street fight, part-advocacy of constitutional principles. In 1996, he and fellow Jackson Walker partner Chip Babcock represented a Houston television station in a high-profile libel case shown on Court TV for seven straight weeks. His courtroom experience in media cases started early when he examined five witnesses in the jury trial of a libel case brought against a weekly newspaper in his second year out of law school.
“When you have a client that has a clear objective and you help achieve that objective, it’s a great feeling of accomplishment and it builds the relationship.”
“When you have a client that has a clear objective and you help achieve that objective, it’s a great feeling of accomplishment and it builds the relationship,” Bob noted. “That’s what we are in the business to do.”
For the full interview, read “10 Questions to a Media Lawyer: Robert Latham” featured in the August 2018 edition of the MLRC MediaLawLetter.
Meet Bob
Dallas partner Robert P. Latham has developed nationally recognized experience in the areas of media law and intellectual property litigation and chairs both practice areas at Jackson Walker. Bob’s trial practice also involves complex commercial disputes as well as unfair competition, securities, probate, employment, banking, real estate, telecommunications, energy, international, and class action matters. Bob is also a published author and columnist, and he has spoken nationally and internationally on matters relating to free speech, technology, intellectual property litigation, and sports. Bob has also been listed in The Best Lawyers in America under First Amendment Law and Litigation – First Amendment, among other categories. In addition to his practice at Jackson Walker, Bob serves on the International Board of ARTICLE 19 and the Governing Committee of the American Bar Association Forum on Communications Law. He is also a former president of the Defense Counsel Section of the Media Law Resource Center.
