Hofstra University School of Law
Professor at Hofstra University School of Law
PROFILE
Roy Simon
Guest
FROM Roy Simon
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Peter Thiel, Revenge and Litigation Finance Peter Thiel is a man of many interests. He made billions of dollars as a co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook. Lately he’s been spreading the wealth in interesting ways. Thiel gives fellowships to teenagers who drop out of school to start companies; he co-founded the Seasteading Institute, an organization that wants to create cities at sea, out of the reach of any government; he’s a pledged delegate for Donald Trump. And news surfaced this week that he’s bankrolling a legal campaign to destroy Gawker Media. As it turns out, Thiel secretly funded Hulk Hogan’s invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against Gawker after the site posted a sex tape of Hogan. A jury awarded Hogan $140 million dollars. According to the New York Times, Thiel is also supporting other cases, though he won’t disclose what they are. He’s not the only person to secretly back a lawsuit like this, though. The practice of litigation finance is becoming more common.
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Doc director Matthew Heineman on his first narrative film, 'A Private War' In his career as a documentary filmmaker, Matthew Heineman has criss-crossed the country, followed Syrian activists in exile and embedded with vigilantes fighting Mexican drug cartels. His newest film, ‘A Private War’ is an adventure of a different kind--a narrative feature about war correspondent Marie Colvin. He tells us about using techniques he learned doing documentaries to make his first narrative film.
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Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Should we keep rebuilding in fire-prone Malibu? Private firefighters successfully defended Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s $50 million mansion from the Woolsey Fire. Insurance companies with a lot at stake have recently started hiring private wildfire defense teams to protect their clients’ properties.