Caren Decter

Partner

Caren Decter is a partner and Co-Chair of the Litigation Group, with nearly 20 years of experience representing clients in the advertising, art, consumer goods, and media and entertainment industries on intellectual property and complex contractual disputes, as well as consumer class actions and white collar criminal matters. She is recognized by Best Lawyers in America (2024-2025), The Legal 500 (2024) and Super Lawyers (2021-2024) as a leading lawyer in her field.

Clients benefit from her skill in managing complex litigation aggressively and efficiently, as well as her responsiveness and ability to forge creative solutions to complicated problems before they grow into drawn-out litigation.

Her recent work includes:

• Defending numerous clients in consumer class actions and mass arbitrations arising under state and federal law, including consumer protection statutes, unfair competition and false advertising laws, the California wiretapping statute (CIPA), the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA);
• Successfully compelling arbitration of VPPA class action against sports streaming platform;
• Negotiating settlement of one of the first public enforcement actions under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA);
• Responding to and resolving CCPA Notice of Violation letters from the California Office of the Attorney General for industry clients;
• Obtaining dismissal—on copyright preemption grounds—of competitor’s contract claim alleging breach of anti-reverse engineering clause;
• Obtaining dismissal of copyright claims against the world’s largest online clearinghouse of stock 3D models;
• Obtaining dismissal on summary judgment of a $30 million art fraud complaint;
• Obtaining dismissal of breach of fiduciary duty and contract claims against commercial bank;
• Representing leading educational publisher in trademark infringement and breach-of-contract litigation against Vanderbilt University;
• Representing museum in World War II restitution case;
• Representing advertising agency in connection with criminal antitrust investigation;
• Drafting U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief in Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith discussing the impact of the fair use ruling on documentary filmmakers.

Ms. Decter takes on significant pro bono matters. The Anti-Defamation League awarded Ms. Decter and several of her colleagues the Edward Brodsky Founders Award in recognition of their work on an amicus brief arguing against President Trump’s travel ban.

Ms. Decter is on the Board of Directors for the New York County Lawyers Association Foundation and a member of the Copyright & Literary Property and Entertainment Law Committees of the NYC Bar Association. Prior to joining Frankfurt Kurnit, Ms. Decter was an attorney with Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, where she represented clients in complex commercial litigations. She also clerked for the Honorable Colleen McMahon, Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

She is admitted to practice in New York and New Jersey, and the federal courts in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the District of New Jersey, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.

University of California, Berkeley School of Law (J.D.)

Washington University in St. Louis (B.A., summa cum laude)