Jennifer E. Rothman

Jennifer E. Rothman is the Nicholas F. Gallicchio Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania and holds a secondary appointment at the Annenberg School for Communication. She is globally recognized for her scholarship in the field of intellectual property law and as the leading expert on the right of publicity. Professor Rothman is an elected member of the American Law Institute and an adviser on the Restatement of the Law (Third) of Torts: Defamation and Privacy.

Rothman’s work focuses on conflicts between intellectual property rights and other constitutionally-protected rights, including the freedom of speech. Her book, The Right of Publicity: Privacy Reimagined for a Public World was published by Harvard University Press and has been described as the “definitive biography of the right of publicity.” Rothman is also the author of numerous essays and articles that regularly appear in top law reviews and journals. Her most recent article, Navigating the Identity Thicket: Trademark’s Lost Theory of Personality, the Right of Publicity, and Preemption was published in the Harvard Law Review. A forthcoming piece titled Postmortem Privacy, co-authored with Anita Allen, will be published in the Fall of 2024 in the Michigan Law Review.

Rothman has testified in Congress multiples times recently to address issues involving intellectual property, personality rights, and artificial intelligence. Rothman is also the creator of Rothman’s Roadmap to the Right of Publicity, an online resource, located at www.rightofpublicityroadmap.com, that provides expert analysis of right of publicity laws and commentary on recent cases and legislation.

Rothman received her A.B. from Princeton University where she received the Asher Hinds Book Prize and the Grace May Tilton Prize. Rothman received an M.F.A. in film production from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, where she directed an award-winning documentary. Rothman received her J.D. from UCLA, where she graduated first in her class and won the Jerry Pacht Memorial Constitutional Law Award for her scholarship in that field. Rothman served as law clerk to the Honorable Marsha S. Berzon of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Rothman has also worked in the film industry, including a position in feature production at Paramount Pictures, and as an entertainment and intellectual property litigator in Los Angeles.