For more than 30 years, Amanda Martin routinely counseled reporters, editors and news directors about avoiding libel suits, gaining access to closed government meetings and records and resisting subpoenas. With the advent of the internet, Ms. Martin expanded her practice to include counseling and representing non-media individuals and organizations with social media issues. Ms. Martin was general counsel to the N.C. Press Association, an organization of approximately 200 N.C. newspapers, for almost 25 years. Ms. Martin taught as an adjunct instructor of media law at the UNC School of Law, the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication and Campbell Law School and came to Duke in 2022 to serve as the Supervising Attorney in the First Amendment Clinic.
Ms. Martin is the author of the North Carolina section of Current Developments in Media Libel Law, North Carolina survey, published by the Media Law Resource Center, co-author of the North Carolina section of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Open Government Guide and co-editor of the North Carolina Media Law Handbook, to which she also contributes as an author. She is a frequent speaker and panelist at media law forums and workshops and regularly contributes articles to legal, media and other publications.
Ms. Martin is on the boards of the North Carolina Open Government Coalition and North Carolina Humanities. She has served as the chairman of the N.C. Bar Association’s Constitutional Rights and Responsibility Section Council and its Litigation Section, and she served as a director of the Wake County Bar Association and editor of its newsletter. She enjoys reading, cooking, art and travel and is an active member of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church.
