Sign Up for Alerts
Sign up to receive receive industry-specific emails from our legal team.
Sign Up for Alerts
We provide tailored, industry-specific legal updates to our clients and other friends of the firm.
Areas of Interest
July 24th, 2025
SHOOT’s 65th Anniversary Reflections: FKKS’ Managing Partner Jeffrey A. Greenbaum
SHOOT Magazine quotes Jeffrey A. Greenbaum in its 65th Anniversary coverage on where the advertising industry has been, is, and is going. Jeff discusses the most significant legal cases during his industry tenure and the accompanying lessons, the most pressing legal issues for the commercial production community, his most meaningful professional accomplishments, and the value he has gained from reading SHOOT.
Reflecting on his tenure in the advertising industry, Jeff says, “In the ‘90s, federal and state regulators brought enforcement actions against big car companies–and their advertising agencies–alleging that they engaged in false advertising. It was a big wake-up call to agencies, and others working in advertising, that it’s not just the brands who are responsible for ensuring that their advertising is truthful and not misleading…Not long after that, with the explosion of online marketing, one of the key issues that regulators focused on was the concept of “transparency.”
In recent years, regulators in the United States and abroad have been questioning whether online marketers are using design choices that manipulate users into taking actions that they might not otherwise take. Jeff says that these actions – known as “dark patterns” are being flagged by regulators, and that marketers must consider, “not only whether they’re telling the truth to consumers, but whether they are treating them fairly.”
For the commercial production and advertising communities, Jeff highlights two key pressing issues: Generative AI and the demonstrable value that agencies and production companies can bring to campaigns. “If advertising can be crowdsourced, if a commercial can be shot on a mobile phone, if a generative AI tool can produce a new campaign almost instantly, and if it can all be shared organically in social, brands are going to continue to ask hard questions about what role agencies and production companies are playing today and how to value that contribution,” says Jeff.
In Jeff’s nearly 30 years as an advertising lawyer, he has found that relationships are the most meaningful part of his job. “Whether it’s helping a brand or an agency negotiate with an A-list celebrity for a new campaign, or dealing with a serious false advertising or infringement issue, or helping a director think through a move to a new production company, or just working on the day-to-day advertising issues that brands, ad agencies, and commercial production companies face, it’s all about helping the clients…. And one of the most gratifying things is [that] those relationships continue for decades.”
Jeff recounts that when he joined Frankfurt Kurnit, the firm’s founder, Mike Frankfurt, told him that as an advertising lawyer, he would represent commercial production companies, directors, and others working in the commercial production industry. It was after that that Jeff began reading SHOOT. “I loved when SHOOT arrived in the (physical!) mail every week and I could read about all of the great that work our clients were doing. It was obvious to me back then (as it is today) how essential SHOOT was in keeping the community connected and informed.”
Other Quoted
Data Privacy Roundup
The AdExchanger newsletter quotes Daniel M. Goldberg, highlighting key privacy enforcement trends. He provided an example of how opting in cookie tracking by clicking a bold “Allow All” button contrasted with declining tracing, which required a more involved two-step process. Mr. Goldberg pointed out that regulators saw this process as a “potential dark pattern.” “‘Symmetry of choice is the idea that it should be just as easy to accept as it is to reject,’” Goldberg said. ‘It’s an area regulators are looking very, very closely at.’” He also noted dark pattern fines, especially with the CPPA could become substantially larger. He underscored due diligence in programs, referencing recent privacy enforcement setttlements and fines. “‘All these cases involve vendor solutions that did not work,’ Goldberg said. ‘In almost all of them, the company did have privacy compliance in place; it just wasn’t working.’” View Article
July 25 2025
Companies Sought Help From Privacy Vendors. They Still Got Fined
Daniel M. Goldberg is quoted in Bloomberg Law on problems faced by companies who have relied on compliance vendors to help them navigate new privacy laws. The article stated that vendors operating with little oversight, outdated tech have “left businesses with consumer-facing websites open to fines and other enforcement actions.”
Bloomberg Law noted, “For example, giving consumers the option to disable cookies may not turn off all of a company’s tracking technology. So consumer data could still be automatically sent to a third party for advertising.
“Vendors cannot just repurpose tools meant to comply with EU’s data protection law for California’s rules, said Daniel M. Goldberg, chair of the data strategy, privacy & security group at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC.
"‘Many solutions are solutions that are built for one purpose,’ Goldberg said, adding that some vendors’ ‘default configurations often aren’t drafted in a way that is sufficient to address US privacy law.’” View Article.
July 14 2025
The Battle over California’s Bill to Regulate how Insurers Handle Personal Data
Rick Borden is quoted in the Continuing Education of the Bar’s (CEB) DailyNews in an article on the proposed California data privacy law, Senate Bill 354, which would extend greater data privacy protections to the insurance industry. The Insurance Consumer Privacy Protection Act (ICPPA) 2025 would expand the California’s existing insurance-specific privacy law, known as the Insurance Information and Privacy Protection Act (IIPPA).
The article stated, “Rick Borden, a partner with Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz who focuses on data strategy and privacy, said California may be acting too soon because revised regulations and guidance are coming down the pike. A working group at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) is moving ahead with updates to its Model law 672, which each state has either adopted or adopted in substantially similar form. ‘Let them do their stuff,’ Borden said.”
He pointed to the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA) comment letter, written on behalf of 1,200 companies comprising nearly 60% of the country’s property and casualty insurance market. It also recommended CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) regulators to wait.
But the bill’s author Senator Monique Limón and its sponsor, California Insurance Commissioner Richard Lara, are moving forward with the bill.
Mr. Borden also noted “that advertising and marketing is one of the most important areas that California’s proposed new protections could cover.”
“‘Certain advertising is not subject to GLBA [Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act], so already would be subject to CCPA,’ he said. ‘Because you’re not their customer, yet. And this isn’t about a financial transaction with them.’ The revised insurance laws would cover data collection, including for advertising, that is a part of covered insurance relationships.” View article. (Cost-free registration required.)
July 8 2025