Reporters Committee welcomes attorney Marietta Catsambas to lead amicus practice

Marietta Catsambas has joined the Reporters Committee as a staff attorney leading the organization’s robust amicus practice, a role in which she will bring together broad coalitions of major news and transparency groups and oversee the filing of legal briefs in support of journalists’ newsgathering and First Amendment rights.

“We are thrilled to welcome Marietta to the Reporters Committee’s growing legal team to continue our longstanding work ensuring courts understand how the cases before them impact a free press,” said Lisa Zycherman, the Reporters Committee’s vice president of legal programs. “Marietta is a talented media attorney whose experience fighting for journalists’ rights will strengthen our amicus practice at a time when reporters and news organizations are increasingly faced with legal threats.”

For decades, the Reporters Committee has played a critical role in supporting the news industry through filing friend-of-the-court briefs in state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. The Reporters Committee’s briefs, which are frequently joined by news outlets and transparency organizations, bring the news media’s perspective to cases involving important press freedom issues ranging from unconstitutional prior restraints and subpoenas to libel lawsuits and public records access. 

In 2025 alone, the Reporters Committee filed more than 75 friend-of-the-court briefs, including briefs challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to cancel funding for public media and advocating for Associated Press reporters’ right to access the White House press pool.

This year, the Reporters Committee has filed friend-of-the-court briefs in several high-profile cases. In January, for example, the Reporters Committee led a coalition of 23 media organizations in submitting a brief in support of The New York Times’s lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s restrictions on press access to the Pentagon. The Reporters Committee also authored two separate friend-of-the-court briefs urging a federal court to order the U.S. Department of Justice to return electronic devices seized during a search of a Washington Post reporter’s home. 

Catsambas joins the Reporters Committee from Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, where she litigated cases on behalf of news media, technology companies, and nonprofit organizations to protect their First Amendment and intellectual property rights. 

A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, Catsambas previously clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. She also served as a volunteer attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia.

“I’m excited to join the Reporters Committee’s skilled legal team and work alongside our dedicated partners to defend press freedom in courts across the country,” Catsambas said. “I’ve advocated for the rights of journalists and media organizations throughout my legal career, and look forward to continuing that work at the helm of the Reporters Committee’s amicus practice.”