Elizabeth Soja

Beth Soja is a senior staff attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, where she supports all aspects of the Local Legal Initiative, including litigation, pre-publication review, and training. She represents journalists and news organizations in public records and open meetings matters and transparency and access litigation, including federal First Amendment and Section 1983 claims. She regularly collaborates with Local Legal Initiative attorneys across the country to protect the rights of local journalists covering their communities.

After beginning her legal career as a fellow at the Reporters Committee, Beth practiced media law at Stevens Martin Vaughn & Tadych, PLLC in North Carolina and Davis Wright Tremaine LLP in Washington, D.C. In addition to government transparency and freedom of information issues, especially state open meetings and public records law matters, her practice has focused on pre-publication review, libel defense, and reporter’s privilege. She has co-authored briefs filed in courts nationwide, including the U.S. Supreme Court and taught “Media Law in the Digital Age” as an adjunct lecturer at Georgetown University, her undergraduate alma mater.

Beth earned her J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she served as an articles and notes editor for the First Amendment Law Review and worked as an intern reporter for Legal Times (now The National Law Journal) alongside U.S. Supreme Court correspondent Tony Mauro.

Admitted to practice in North Carolina and Washington, D.C.