Rod Smolla is one of the nation’s leading defamation law and constitutional law litigators and scholars.  Rod has presented oral argument on constitutional law issues, particularly defamation matters, in scores of cases in federal and state courts throughout the nation, including the Supreme Court of the United States.  His notable recent defamation litigation successes include Dominion Voting v. Fox News, in which he single-handedly argued on behalf of the plaintiff Dominion the successful defeat of Fox’s motion to dismiss, and then co-argued the successful defeat of Fox’s motion for summary judgment—setting up a record-breaking $787.5 million settlement by Fox.  In 2024, in Goldfarb v. Channel One Russia, he successfully argued and secured a $25 million judgment in a defamation action in the Southern District of New York on behalf of a former Russian dissident against a Russian media outlet.  He has handled many high-profile defamations matters on behalf of plaintiffs against defendants as various as The New York Times, Fox News, The National Enquirer, and Netflix. 

Rod is also a distinguished scholar, writer, and educator.  He is the author of over 100 scholarly articles, and a frequent author of books for general audiences.  His scholarly works have been cited by courts over 600 times, including many United States Supreme Court Justices, state supreme courts, federal appeals courts, and trial courts throughout the country. His works have been cited by other scholars and writers over 7,000 times. He is the author of several books and five multi-volume legal treatises, including Law of Defamation (which has for decades been widely regarded as the leading American treatise on defamation law). Most colorfully, his book Deliberate Intent: A Lawyer Tells the True Story of Murder by the Book (Crown Publishers 1999), described Rod’s successful advocacy in the notorious Hit Man case, in which he represented the families of murder victims in a suit against the publisher of a murder instruction manual used by an assassin to carry out three murders.   The book was made into a television movie by FX, in which the  Oscar-winning actor Timothy Hutton played the role of Rod.  Not surprisingly, he is often in demand as a guest or commentator in media broadcasts or articles on legal matters, such as CNN and The New York Times.

Rod has also long been one of the nation’s leading educators.  He served as President of Furman University, as Dean of the law schools at Richmond, Washington & Lee, and Delaware, as President of the Vermont Law and Graduate School, and as a faculty member or visiting faculty member at Duke, Illinois, William & Mary, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Denver, DePaul, and the University of Melbourne.  He is a native of Chicago, and a graduate of Yale, where he played football, and Duke Law School, where he graduated first in his class. Not surprisingly, he is often in demand as a guest or commentator in media broadcasts or articles on legal matters, such as CNN and The New York Times.