Julie O'Neill

“ I work closely with clients to navigate the complex, ever-changing landscape of privacy and consumer protection regulation in a way that helps them achieve their business goals.

Clients seek out Julie because of her practical advice on cutting-edge issues at the intersection of privacy and consumer protection laws. She provides clients with practical solutions to compliance challenges around a wide variety of both online and offline privacy issues, including tracking, interest-based advertising, geo-targeting and other mobile tracking, personalization, and cross-device tracking. Recognized in The Legal 500 US 2014, 2016, 2019, and 2020 and Chambers USA 2021 for her exceptional legal work, her clients praise her saying, “She is really good at giving practical, targeted advice and taking stock of what the risk profile of the client is, so that the advice is holistic.” (Chambers USA 2021).

Julie provides clients with creative and practical advice on meeting the requirements of state and federal privacy laws, including the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). She crafts guidelines and compliance programs for clients’ collection, use, and disclosure of personal information in diverse contexts and throughout the life cycle of their initiatives, such as for connected products (the Internet of Things) and mobile services. She also drafts privacy and cookies policies, online service terms of use, agreements involving online and offline advertising and marketing practices, and agreements concerning a variety of data uses. In addition, Julie helps clients assess and manage privacy risks, including in connection with mergers, acquisitions, and other strategic transactions.

Julie creates compliance programs for clients’ use of a wide variety of channels for communicating with and marketing to consumers, including email, telephone, text message, and fax, both in the United States and around the world. She works with clients to develop their social media strategies and to clear their social media content. She also reviews advertising in both traditional and new media for compliance with applicable laws, including Section 5 of the FTC Act and various FTC rules and guides. In addition, she works with clients to structure, market, and implement their sweepstakes, contests, and other promotions in compliance with applicable laws.

As a former FTC staff attorney, Julie regularly defends companies in investigations by the FTC and before data protection authorities around the world.

Representative Experience

• A company that creates online software used by schools in an FTC investigation of alleged COPPA violations.
• A consumer services company investigated by the Korean data protection authority for alleged privacy violations
• A manufacturer in connection with a challenge of its environmental advertising claims by the FTC
• An advertising services company in an investigation of alleged privacy-related violations of the FTC Act
• An online provider of entertainment services in an FTC investigation of alleged COPPA violations
• A beverage company in an FTC investigation of alleged COPPA violations

Before attending law school, Julie was a Peace Corps volunteer in The Gambia, West Africa.