Meta Lawyer Lemley Quits AI Case Citing Zuckerberg 'Descent' (1)
California attorney Mark Lemley dropped Meta Platforms Inc. as a client in a high-profile copyright case because of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s “descent into toxic masculinity and Neo-Nazi madness,” the Stanford University professor said on LinkedIn.
Lemley said in a Monday post he still believes Meta to be “on the right side in the generative AI copyright dispute,” but that he “cannot in good conscience serve as their lawyer any longer.” Zuckerberg has generated controversy in recent days by ending diversity initiatives at the social media giant and ending fact-checking on Facebook posts while expounding the benefits of “masculine energy.”
With Lemley’s exit, attorneys from Cooley LLP and Cleary Gottleib Steen & Hamilton are defending Meta in a pivotal lawsuit from authors alleging that using their works to train AI constitutes copyright infringement. The consolidated case now includes plaintiff writers ranging from comedian Sarah Silverman, writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, politician Mike Huckabee, and novelist Richard Kadrey.
Lemley had represented Meta as a partner for Lex Lumina LLP, a firm largely made up of other academics focusing on IP, First Amendment, antitrust, and adjacent fields. The influential scholar has authored 11 books and was the third-most cited scholar in the world from 2016 to 2020, according to his Stanford bio. He’s also argued dozens of appellate cases and participated in more than three dozen US Supreme Court cases as counsel or amicus, including the Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith case in which the justices reined in what can constitute “transformation” in fair use analyses.
