Influencer Marketing for Entertainers, Agencies, and Advertisers

Allison Fitzpatrick is a partner in the Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Practice Group of Davis & Gilbert. She represents advertisers, media companies, and agencies in connection with all aspects of advertising, marketing, and promotions.

Ms. Fitzpatrick frequently counsels clients on new media issues, including with respect to influencer marketing, native advertising, and other emerging media. She frequently develops clients’ influencers and social media policies and reviews clients’ social media campaigns to ensure compliance with the Federal Trade Commission’s Endorsement Guides and other regulations. Ms. Fitzpatrick also speaks about and advises clients on all aspects of children’s advertising and privacy, including compliance with the Children’s Advertising Review Unit’s Self-Regulatory Guidelines and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). She routinely reviews websites, apps, privacy policies, and promotions to ensure compliance with COPPA and other privacy laws. Ms. Fitzpatrick has represented clients in proceedings before the Children’s Advertising Review Unit and the National Advertising Division and in state regulatory investigations, including comprehensive multi-state actions, most notably in connection with negative option marketing and free trial offers.

In addition, Ms. Fitzpatrick has significant experience in the area of sweepstakes and promotions and advises clients on games of chance, complex skill contests, rebates, gift cards, and coupons, including on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and YouTube for agency clients, as well as directly for many well-known companies. She regularly counsels clients on all aspects of promotions, including with respect to drafting and reviewing their rules, prize supplier and promotional agreements, and winner affidavits and notifications. Ms. Fitzpatrick has also developed a number of loyalty/reward programs for clients.

Ms. Fitzpatrick regularly counsels clients on price advertising, false and deceptive advertising, claim substantiation, privacy, telemarketing, direct mail, email marketing (e.g., CAN-SPAM), endorsement and testimonial issues, and negative option marketing, as well as intellectual property matters involving copyright, trademark, right of privacy and publicity. She also advises clients with respect to drafting and negotiating a variety of agreements, including agency-client agreements, talent agreements, sponsorship and production agreements.

Ms. Fitzpatrick was recognized as a leading lawyer for advertising law by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in 2018 and 2019. The Legal 500 United States has recognized her in the area of advertising and marketing for seven consecutive years (2013-2019). She has also been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America in advertising law (2020). In 2019, Ms. Fitzpatrick was named as a leader in influencer marketing by PR News.

Samantha G. Rothaus is an associate in the Advertising, Marketing & Promotions; Entertainment, Media & Sports and Intellectual Property Practice Groups of Davis & Gilbert. She represents advertising, communications and public relations agencies, media and production companies, filmmakers and advertisers in connection with a variety of issues in advertising, marketing, intellectual property, media and entertainment law. Ms. Rothaus’ practice includes reviewing advertising copy and branded content in a variety of traditional and new media, as well as advising clients on complex intellectual property, false advertising and consumer protection matters. In addition, her practice includes advising on and negotiating agreements in support of creative executions and branded promotions, including production agreements, talent and influencer agreements, sponsorship deals, contest and sweepstakes rules, and licenses for music, artwork, software, and related intellectual property.

Ms. Rothaus also has extensive experience in brand protection and brand management, notably in the fashion and lifestyle industries, and she continues to assist clients in asserting and defending their intellectual property rights against competitors and other third parties. As a former litigator with experience in federal and state courts, as well as in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization, she is well-versed in the many stages of both formal and informal dispute resolution processes, allowing her to provide strategic advice to clients to protect their business interests. She is passionate about the arts and entertainment and regularly provides pro bono assistance to independent artists, including filmmakers and musicians, through organizations such as Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts.

In recognition of her achievements, Ms. Rothaus was selected as a Rising Star by New York Metro Super Lawyers (2016-2019).

Prior to joining Davis & Gilbert, Ms. Rothaus was an intellectual property associate at Venable LLP and at Gottlieb, Rackman & Reisman, P.C., where she focused on false advertising, unfair competition, anti-counterfeiting, trademark infringement, and copyright litigation, as well as worldwide trademark prosecution, licensing and brand protection. While in law school, she interned at 20th Century Fox, NBCUniversal and Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts of Massachusetts.