Biography
Katharine Larsen leads Thomson Reuters’ approach and strategy for litigation matters, acting as strategic advisor to leadership in support of managing opportunities and litigation risks spanning commercial, employment, intellectual property, media and other practice areas. Katharine’s team includes TR’s global Employment and Labor, Commercial Litigation, and Reuters News practice groups. She previously served as Chief Counsel, Reuters News, where she was responsible for supporting and defending Reuters journalists in nearly 200 locations and counseling Reuters leadership on global newsgathering and publication best practices and risks, including under criminal, national security and privacy laws. In 2019, Ms. Larsen helped secure the release of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who were falsely convicted on espionage charges in Myanmar after exposing a massacre of Rohingya villagers.
Ms. Larsen frequently speaks on best practices in the legal aspects of newsgathering in hot spots around the world, offering practical insights into navigating the risks faced by journalists today. She has published on emerging issues in free speech jurisprudence, including on US legal protections for anonymous speech (“Anonymous Online Speech,” Communications Law in the Digital Age (PLI, 2012, 2013, 2014)) and protections for the publication of national security information (“Freedom of Expression-Based Restrictions on the Prosecution of Journalists Under State Secrets Laws: A Comparative Analysis” (Journal of International Media and Entertainment Law, 2014)). Prior to joining Reuters, Ms. Larsen was in private practice, advocating for the rights media companies, publishers, non-profits and individual journalists, in the US and Europe; she also served as a legal adviser for the ABA’s Rule of Law programs in Baku, Azerbaijan.