Rick Kurnit

Teaches at Miami Ad School PRO

Rick Kurnit was selected by Best Lawyers as its first New York Media Lawyer of the Year. He is ranked by Chambers USA as one of two star individuals nationwide in Advertising law, praised as a “leading lawyer” in Marketing and Advertising by The Legal 500, and selected in Best Lawyers' annual survey in six fields: Advertising, Copyright, Entertainment, Intellectual Property, Media, and Trademark. Rick is Vice Chair of the ABA Committee on Private Advertising Litigation. He has handled many of the leading cases defining the application of intellectual property law to advertising and marketing communications, including representing the defendants in the Vanna White, Woody Allen, and Jackie Onassis look-alike cases; Viking Press, Nelson DeMille, Terry McMillan, and other authors and publishers in libel cases based on works of fiction; Prodigy in the Stratton Oakmont case and other cases defining online liability; John Deere in defining use of trademarks in comparative advertising; the maker of a smaller copy of the necklace from Titanic in defining the scope of parallel marketing; and “Gone With The Wind” in defining parody and copyright infringement. Rick has also handled numerous Lanham Act and comparative advertising cases and NAD challenges. In addition to all aspects of marketing communications, Rick advises companies and individuals on mergers, acquisitions, succession plans, employment agreements, partnership agreements, and phantom equity plans. Rick teaches advertising and intellectual property law and lectures regularly for the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Promotion Marketing Association, the Association of National Advertisers, the Copyright Society of the U.S.A., and the American Law Institute/American Bar Association. He has repeatedly been a guest lecturer at Beijing University; Harvard, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, NYU, Fordham, New York and Cardozo Law Schools; and conferences in Asia, Europe, and North America. He is a member of the Boards of The Miami Ad School, The Art Directors Club, and The Advertising Compliance Service.