Robert A. Bertsche
Partner
Robert A. Bertsche is a nationally known media lawyer with a litigation and transactional practice. He is devoted to protecting clients’ First Amendment, intellectual property, business and employment interests.
A former newspaper and magazine journalist, Rob offers counseling and litigation services to the gamut of media clients throughout the United States: magazines, newspapers, book publishers, broadcasters, website operators, bloggers, cable television providers, and advertising agencies. His practice includes the following:
- Prepublication and prebroadcast review for magazines, newspapers, websites and broadcasters
- Negotiating and drafting freelance and other media contracts
- Defending media clients against claims of libel, invasion of privacy, copyright and trademark infringement, breach of contract, and related actions
- Conducting workplace trainings to help the media stay out of court
- Prosecuting access challenges under federal and state law
- Helping clients draft and enact policies relating to confidential sources, ethics, blogging and data privacy
- Defending reporters against subpoenas seeking confidential sources or notes
- Assessing website compliance with state and federal legal requirements
A sampling of Rob’s work illustrates the breadth of his practice. In early 2008, when a newspaper was barred from a hospital room arraignment, Rob obtained from the Supreme Judicial Court a stay that was lifted only after the judge relented and let the press in. He helped obtain reversal from the First Circuit Court of Appeals of a million-dollar libel judgment against a newspaper reporter. He has successfully challenged gag orders against the press, and won orders permitting press access to court and government documents and proceedings.
Rob has represented media in cases establishing new Massachusetts law: applying the “single publication rule” to websites, demonstrating that police officers are “public officials” for libel law purposes and establishing that public high school students have editorial discretion over their publications. He has litigated copyright and trademark infringement cases; represented cartoonists, bloggers and television talk show hosts in court; and defended newspapers, magazines and other clients in employment cases alleging discrimination, harassment and wrongful discharge. Working pro bono, he successfully defended a student editor at a several-day defamation trial, won sanctions against a public official who claimed he was libeled by a community affairs website that parodied him, and helped a small Connecticut newspaper mount a public meetings challenge against its local school board.
Rob has also drafted freelance contracts for newspapers and magazines across the country; vetted advertising and sweepstakes; counseled media clients regarding circulation audits; advised artists, photographers, writers and artists on copyright and fair use law; and conducted prepublication review of countless newspaper and magazine articles, as well as books on topics ranging from a former U.S. secretary of state to lessons on business ethics. He established and oversees an active legal hotline for the 450-plus newspaper members of the New England Newspaper & Press Association (NENPA).
In his employment practice, Rob counsels employers on issues including terminations, sexual harassment, wage and hour laws, and independent contractor status, and defends them in state and federal court, and at the administrative level, against harassment, discrimination, retaliation, defamation, breach of contract, wrongful discharge and other common-law and statutory claims. He writes an annual survey of Massachusetts employment libel law that is circulated to lawyers nationwide.
Rob is a member of the New England Society of Professional Journalists advisory board, general counsel to NENPA, founder of the New England Media Law Group and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Since 2002, the American Society of Magazine Editors has selected Rob to present its annual business and editorial law training for magazines nationwide.
He is a visiting lecturer in the communications and media studies program at Tufts University, where he teaches “Media Law and Ethics in a Digital World.” For almost two decades, he has authored the annual survey of First Circuit libel law published by the New York-based Media Law Resource Center. He also writes the outline of Massachusetts public access law published by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Rob also serves on the National Advisory Committee of the Student Press Law Center, an information clearinghouse whose members advocate for student speech rights.
Before attending law school, Rob worked as city editor of the daily Transcript-Telegram newspaper in Holyoke, Massachusetts, attended the Radcliffe Publishing Procedures Course in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and later was on the founding staff of New England Monthly magazine, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award for General Excellence. After law school, Rob was an associate, then partner, at the Boston law firm of Hill & Barlow until it closed in 2003.
In February 2010, Rob was a featured speaker and workshop facilitator at the annual NENPA convention. Rob presented the topic Internet and Media Law, where he led a discussion on the impact the Internet is having on issues such as information security, telemarketing, copyright, privacy, public notices, and e-commerce. Rob also participated in a workshop titled, From Full-Time to Freelance: Has Cost Cutting Provided More Freedom With Writers and Photographers? Participants discussed how the increased use of freelancers vs. full-time employees is impacting copyright law, deadlines, copy editing systems, beat structures, and coverage. Click here to access the audio of both these presentations.
In October 2010, Rob was a featured speaker at the National Newspaper Association’s 125th anniversary conference, discussing the topic, The New Rules for Community Newspapers: How the Internet Has Changed the Law. Click here to view Rob’s presentation.
Rob
is a member of the firm's multidisciplinary Nanotechnology Practice Group,
which includes attorneys from most of the firm's traditional practices
including employment, insurance/reinsurance, intellectual property, litigation
(including product liability, environmental and toxic tort litigation), real estate/environmental
regulation, corporate, and renewable energy law. Attorneys in our
Nanotechnology Practice Group work as a cohesive team to identify and resolve
the unique legal challenges faced by our clients in the nanotechnology field.
Our Nanotechnology Group is active in industry forums and conferences, webinar
presentations, publications and journals, and in collaborating with strategic
partners in the toxicology, scientific, risk management, regulatory and
industry standardization efforts taking place locally, nationally and
globally. Rob concentrates in nanotechnology and OSHA/NIOSH regulations
and guidelines and labor and employment matters for Nano businesses.
Bar Admissions- United States Supreme Court
- United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
- Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania
- United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
Education- Harvard Law School, J.D., magna cum laude, 1989
- Radcliffe Publishing Procedures Course, 1986
- Wesleyan University, B.A., magna cum laude, 1980
Noteworthy- AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated
- 2009: Elected to the Massachusetts Bar Foundation's Society of Fellows as an Oliver Wendell Holmes Fellow
- 2005-2012: Listed in The Best Lawyers in America and Boston's Best Lawyers (Woodward/White), in the fields of Communications Law, Media Law, First Amendment Law, and Litigation - First Amendment
- 2004-2011: Named a "Massachusetts Super Lawyer" in the area of First Amendment/Media/Advertising
Memberships- American Bar Association
- American Bar Foundation
- Boston Bar Association
- Copyright Society
- Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania Bar Associations
- Media Law Resource Center
- National Newspaper Association
- New England First Amendment Center, Advisory Board Member
- Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
- Student Press Law Center, National Advisory Committee
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