Latham & Watkins LLP

Elana Nightingale Dawson represents market-leading companies at the intersection of digital content, technology, and the law.

Elana leverages a sophisticated understanding of her clients’ objectives and a pragmatic approach to risk mitigation to help companies, including social media companies, online gaming platforms, and technology companies, navigate:

• • All stages of litigation, from trial to appeal, including before the US Supreme Court
  • A broad spectrum of questions about legal risks related to user-generated content and new technology, with a particular focus on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
  • New product development in light of copyright law

She skillfully identifies potential areas of exposure and works with clients to craft commercially viable solutions that allow them to achieve their business objectives. Through the lens of her comprehensive knowledge of copyright law and the particular risks facing online-content providers, Elana also advises clients on adjacent intellectual property laws as well as myriad state laws.

In addition to her commercial practice, Elana maintains an active pro bono practice. She led the Latham trial team that, after a week-long evidentiary hearing, secured federal habeas relief for an inmate on Alabama’s death row, for which the team received the 2022 Robert M. Dell Prize for Extraordinary Pro Bono Service. She has successfully argued cases before the US Court of Appeals for the First, Fourth, Seventh, and Federal Circuits. She is a member of Latham’s Pro Bono Committee and a former member of Latham’s Diversity Leadership Committee. She is also a member, and former treasurer, of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court.

Elana returned to Latham in 2016 after serving as a law clerk to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the US Supreme Court. Before she first joined Latham, Elana served as a law clerk to Judge Raymond M. Kethledge of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and Judge Gary Feinerman of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She also served as a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States, where she worked on a number of Supreme Court cases, including copyright cases.

Prior to entering the practice of law, Elana worked in production and stage management at the Alley Theatre, Imagination Stage, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the National Theatre of the Deaf.