About Us

Bill Rothbard has over three decades of experience as a business litigator and advertising and regulatory law specialist. As a Los Angeles internet law attorney and intellectual property lawyer, he counsels clients on regulatory compliance in the areas of advertising, marketing, direct response, consumer privacy and Internet law, and negotiates and prepares business, licensing, marketing, production, distribution, talent, media and website agreements on their behalf. He represents clients in federal and state deceptive advertising and unfair competition matters. Being a Los Angeles internet law attorney and intellectual property lawyer, he also advises clients on trademark and copyright matters and prosecutes trademark and copyright registration application.

Bill has served as the Editor of Competition, an antitrust and trade regulation journal published by the California State Bar, Antitrust and Trade Regulation Section, and served on the Executive Committee of the Section from 1995-98.  He also has been a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Antitrust and Trade Regulation Section, and served on its Executive Committee from 1989-2002.

Before he became a Los Angeles internet law attorney and intellectual property lawyer, Bill received his law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the law, in 1976, and B.A. from The University of Michigan in 1972.  From 1977 to 1984, Bill was an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission, holding positions as an advertising enforcement attorney, Deputy Assistant Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, and Attorney-Advisor to FTC Chairman Michael Pertschuk.  Bill has practiced law continuously since 1984, except for a two-year appointment as Counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Monopolies and Business Rights, in 1987-88

Representative Clients

Articles

It’s About Time to Give FTC Defendants a Fairer ShotLos Angeles Daily Journal, June 20, 2019

Freezing Speech: Chilling Effect of FTC Enforcement on Advertisers
, Response Magazine, Feb. 2006

FTC Discriminates Against Little Guys in Enforcement Cases, Los Angeles Daily Journal. Sept. 2005

Legal Review: Is It What You Say or Who You Are?, Response Magazine, Oct. 2005

Website Development Contracts: Avoid the Legal Pitfalls, Web Marketing Today, Nov. 1998

The FTC’s Revised Telemarketing Rule: A Graceful Retreat, American Bar Association, Antitrust Law Section: Consumer Protection Update (Vol. 4, No. 2, Summer 1995)

Qualified Jurists or Savvy Politicos, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 8, 1994

Reauthorizing the FTC Back Into the Future, Legal Times, July 5, 1993

Despite Victories, the Fight Against the Deadliest Drug is Far from Over, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 19, 1989

The Impact of Proposition 103’s Partial Repeal of the Insurance Industry’s Immunity from California Antitrust and Trade Regulation Laws (co-author), Practicing Law Institute, Corporate Law and Practice Course Handbook (Sept. 1989)

America’s Transition: Blueprints for the 1990s, Consumer Protection: The Federal Trade Commission (co-author), published by Democracy Project (1989)

GM, FTC: David is No Match for Goliath, After All, Legal Times, May 16, 1983