Rod Smolla: Fighting for the First Amendment While Teaching It

VLGS Professor Joins Esteemed Washington, D.C., Firm

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. (July 23, 2025) — Celebrated First Amendment scholar Rodney A. Smolla — a professor and former president at Vermont Law and Graduate School — has joined the D.C.-based law firm Meier Watkins Phillips Pusch LLP as senior counsel.

“Rod practices what he teaches day in and day out,” Vermont Law School Dean Beth McCormack said. “The profound expertise and litigation experience he brings to the classroom are invaluable assets to Vermont Law and Graduate School students.”

Smolla, who returned to VLGS’s full-time faculty this summer after three years serving as the school’s president, will retain his professorship while working with Meier Watkins. He will teach First Amendment, Constitutional Law and Mass Media Law courses.

Since arriving at VLGS, Smolla has played vital roles in the litigation of Dominion Voting v. Fox News and Goldfarb v. Channel One Russia, the former resulting in a $787 million settlement against the news conglomerate and the latter winning a $25 million judgment on behalf of a former Russian dissident defamed by the country’s media.

“Doing and teaching others to do are my truest passions,” Smolla said. “I’ve continued to be active in my practice during my time at Vermont Law and Graduate School, and have found it enriches the students’ experience, as they are able to learn alongside me in the moment.”

###

Vermont Law and Graduate School, a private, independent institution, is home to a law school that offers ABA-accredited residential and online hybrid JD programs and a graduate school that offers master’s degrees and certificates in multiple disciplines, including programs offered by the Maverick Lloyd School for the Environment, the Center for Justice Reform and other graduate-level programs emphasizing the intersection of environmental justice, social justice and public policy. Both the law and graduate schools strongly feature experiential clinical and field work learning. For more information, visit vermontlaw.edu, Facebook and Instagram.