Matthew Lee (Partner-DC Metro) and Haley Mathis (Associate-McLean, VA) forced a plaintiff to voluntarily dismiss his defamation case against a local newspaper on the eve of trial. A local newspaper published a letter to the editor that drew the ire of a local attorney who filed suit against the firm’s clients (the newspaper, publisher and editor) and the author of the letter. Prior to trial, Matt and Haley filed a motion with the court requesting that it rule as a matter of law that the subject matter of the letter to the editor touched on matters of public concern. The trial court agreed their argument, concluding that plaintiff’s various lawsuits and allegations against county board members, as well as a financial scandal in a neighboring town, in which the plaintiff was, at the time, the assistant town attorney, were matters of public concern. Thus, plaintiff was required to prove New York Times malice by clear and convincing evidence in order to recover presumed or punitive damages; the plaintiff had already stipulated that he was not seeking compensatory damages in the case. In the face of the court’s ruling, the plaintiff chose to suffer a voluntary dismissal rather than prosecute a futile attempt to prove that the firm’s clients knew that the statements were false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.