From our base in New York, we represent a diverse range of clients across the country and around the world.

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The unending wave of disruptive new media entering the consumer economy has forever changed the way advertising is created and delivered. As emerging digital platforms spawn whole new industries, advertisers are now routinely presented with both exciting opportunities and new risks. At the same time, the regulatory framework meant to govern these platforms has not kept pace with technology, leaving advertisers and marketers sometimes uncertain of their compliance obligations.

Our attorneys counsel brands and their agencies on the legal and business implications of emerging media across all digital and social platforms, from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to TikTok and Twitch. Our long history in the advertising and marketing ecosystem uniquely qualifies us to interpret rules long in need of updating and apply them to our clients’ most innovative marketing tactics.

Influencer Marketing

We have long been at the forefront of influencer marketing — since “influencers” were called “bloggers” — and we have helped clients negotiate with bloggers, even as they transitioned into the more powerful force of influencers. Many of our clients engage influencers to reach their target audiences on social media, and they rely on us to help manage the myriad legal issues that arise from that engagement. This includes dealing with “micro” influencers in niche categories, with child influencers in “unboxing” videos and with household names who are lending their celebrity status to global brands.

We represent brands and agencies in negotiations with influencers across a wide range of platforms and marketing categories, and we help them write contracts with strong morals and termination provisions, so as to protect them against misbehavior that could harm the brand.

We know the influencer industry inside and out, as we also represent both individual influencers and influencer marketing agencies. With influencer marketing now a global phenomenon, we work to develop policies to guide regulatory compliance in all jurisdictions, domestic and international.

Native Advertising

We also counsel our clients on all aspects of “native” advertising, including applying the FTC’s Native Advertising Guidelines to publishers’ content that historically had been protected by the First Amendment. We know well how to reconcile the conflicting legal issues inherent in such sponsored arrangements. Our clients trust us to help them negotiate their media contracts, advise on their disclosures and establish practical compliance programs for nontraditional methods of advertising to consumers.

Digital and Social Media Guidance

We routinely counsel our clients on how to present advertisements and make disclosures in all forms of digital and social media, particularly in instances where the legal rules have not kept pace with evolving platforms. We show them how to make these disclosures in space-constrained media such as Twitter and TikTok, and we help them determine how best to make disclosures on new platforms as they arise.

Representative Experience

  • Partnered with a major fashion retailer on its global influencer and user-generated content social media promotions and drafted internal and external influencer marketing policies for use across international offices.

  • Assisted one of the largest pizza chains in the U.S. in launching its first-ever Super Bowl commercial and in structuring advertising and social media campaigns to promote it. This included providing Real Time Social Media Guidelines and drafting terms and conditions for a giveaway promotion.

  • Developed international social media influencer and promotion guidelines for one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies, including obtaining risk assessments from local counsel in most major European countries and providing risk mitigation guidelines and preparing global rules based on local counsel advice.

  • Advising a leading advertising agency on compliance with the FTC Endorsement Guides and FTC Native Advertising Guide. Reviewed native and influencer campaigns; assessed the adequacy of disclosures; structured social media policies, influencer/endorser guidelines, term sheets and contracts, and drafted contracts for influencers and native content vendors.

  • Providing strategic advice, including navigation of licensing and management of user generated content (UGC), to an independent advertising agency on the creation and management of a national TikTok challenge featuring original music for a major telecommunications brand.

  • Advised one of the largest entertainment platforms on an ambitious, real-time activation campaign to promote a new release. Created Real Time Marketing Guidelines and provided real-time risk assessments and marketing advice, including providing on-the-spot copyright, trademark, and right of publicity advice based on questions posed and assets provided by the marketing team who was posting social media posts in real-time from the activation.

Key Contacts

Meet The Team