Celebrity Client's Cyberbattle Sparks Alleged Threats Against Counsel
Attorney Joan Lukey helped celebrity author Patricia Cornwell battle a cyber-attacker with some success. The author eventually won not only libel damages but a court order that persuaded a number of Internet service providers to take down offending material.
But then the bane of the best-selling crime novelist’s existence turned his attention to Lukey, allegedly making implicit threats against her and her legal colleagues and smearing her repeatedly in a vicious Internet libel campaign, reports the Am Law Daily. The man she accuses of turning his attention from Cornwell to the author’s counsel apparently couldn’t be reached by the legal publication for comment.
Lukey, who was at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr when she was litigating on Cornwell’s behalf, moved to Ropes & Gray not quite a year ago.
Now the 59-year-old First Amendment lawyer is focusing her efforts on enacting federal legislation intended to make it easier for those attacked on the Internet to seek redress, both for libel and for threatening behavior. Amendments to the Communications Decency Act and Interstate Stalking Act are needed, she says, to make it harder for cyber-attackers to hide behind the Web’s anonymity and to provide appropriate criminal sanctions for Internet threats.
Although her law firm has increased security measures in response to her situation, “At night when I leave and I’m the only one down there, I sometimes can’t avoid thinking about the risks,” Lukey tells the Am Law Daily. “He could always follow me. It’s a nightmare.”
Related earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Judge: Stop Web Attack on Crime Author”
ABAJournal.com: “Meet Patricia Cornwell, Forensic Author Who Earned $100 Million”
