Perkins Coie Litigation Team Secures First Amendment Federal Court Win for DEF CON
SEATTLE (May 14, 2025)—Perkins Coie is pleased to announce that its First Amendment trial team has secured another significant win for a client in federal court, this time on behalf of DEF CON, one of the world’s largest hacking conferences.
The firm team won summary judgment before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in a high-profile defamation case. The plaintiff claimed that he had been defamed by DEF CON after being banned from its conference for violating DEF CON’s code of conduct. DEF CON also announced the ban publicly to emphasize its accountability for conference attendees.
DEF CON asserted truth as an absolute defense, and the Perkins Coie team sought discovery into the plaintiff’s background to demonstrate that DEF CON’s statement was not defamatory.
In granting summary judgment for DEF CON, the court agreed that DEF CON’s statements “are true and were true at the time of publication, and that truth is a complete defense to a defamation action.”
The Perkins Coie team was led by partner David Perez, the firmwide chair of the Business Litigation practice, and included partner Matt Mertens, counsel Jake Dean, and associate Lauren Trambley.
The case marked the second notable win for the First Amendment team in recent months. In March, the team secured a win for Gen Con, the largest tabletop gaming convention in the world, in a similar legal case. Perkins Coie’s First Amendment team regularly defends clients asserting or defending defamation.
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Before proceeding, please note: If you are not a current client of Perkins Coie, please do not include any information in this e-mail that you or someone else considers to be of a confidential or secret nature. Perkins Coie has no duty to keep confidential any of the information you provide. Neither the transmission nor receipt of your information is considered a request for legal advice, securing or retaining a lawyer. An attorney-client relationship with Perkins Coie or any lawyer at Perkins Coie is not established until and unless Perkins Coie agrees to such a relationship as memorialized in a separate writing.