Scott Wilkens is senior counsel at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, where he focuses on freedom of speech online and government regulation of social media platforms. He brings nearly 20 years of litigation experience from private practice.

Wilkens has been involved in several high-profile cases at the Institute. He filed a motion to intervene in United States v. Trump, seeking public access to Volume II of Special Counsel Jack Smith's final report, which addresses the investigation and prosecution of President Trump for the willful retention of classified documents. He also filed amicus briefs on the Institute’s behalf in Moody v. NetChoice, a Supreme Court case about state laws restricting social media content moderation, and in X Corp. v. Media Matters in the Fifth Circuit, addressing Elon Musk’s use of civil litigation to suppress First Amendment rights. In 2024, Wilkens successfully argued and won a First Amendment right of access case in the Fifth Circuit in Texas Tribune v. Caldwell County.

Wilkens also engages in public thought leadership on free speech issues. In February 2025, he published an op-ed in The Hill titled The Courts Must Decide Between Elon Musk and the First Amendment, discussing the threats to free expression posed by powerful platform owners and their allies in government.

Before joining the Knight Institute, Wilkens spent over a decade in private practice at Jenner & Block LLP, where he focused on copyright infringement in the digital age. His work included litigating against major platforms like YouTube and Google and shuttering the streaming service Aereo after prevailing in the Supreme Court in 2014. He also advised companies on complex financial disputes with major investment banks, private banks, and insurance companies.

Throughout his career, Wilkens has maintained a strong commitment to public-interest litigation, devoting hundreds of hours each year to pro bono work, particularly on LGBTQ rights. His work included challenging North Carolina’s anti-transgender law HB2 and submitting amicus briefs in major discrimination cases, such as Bostock v. Clayton County (employment discrimination), Hecox v. Little (school athletics), and Gavin Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board (public facilities access).

Wilkens holds a B.A. in political science and economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead-Cain Scholar, an M.Sc. in international relations from the London School of Economics as a Fulbright Scholar, and a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He clerked for Judge Raymond C. Fisher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.