📚 CuratedLA interviews Robert Freund

ROBERT FREUND

👋 ROBERT FREUND is an entertainment lawyer who focuses his practice on advertising compliance and litigation, working on social media marketing issues with brands, agencies, and creators.

📸 @robertfreundlaw
🧠 on X @RobertFreundLaw
🖥️ Robert Freund Law

MEET ROBERT

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN LOS ANGELES? 🏄‍♂️ 

I have been in Los Angeles since 2012, so I guess it’s almost thirteen years now. It’s crazy to think about, that it’s been that long, but it has. Has it gone by pretty fast? I feel like yes and no. I feel like some parts of living in Los Angeles have gone by pretty quickly.

WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND? 💼 

I grew up in Virginia Beach, Virginia, which was a pretty cool place to grow up, it’s a really nice place. 

I enjoyed both skateboarding and surfing growing up, early on around the age of nine or ten, and it was pretty much all I cared about, except for video games and playing guitar, those ages through middle and high school. 

After high school, I went to William & Mary in Virginia for college and majored in economics. A lot of my friends majored in finance, but I did have a burning passion for academics. So I asked, ‘What do I want to do?’ Well, I knew that I wanted to be relatively financially secure and employable, so I thought, ‘Okay, law school sounds like an option for a stable career that’s intellectually stimulating, and something that I might be good at.’ So to validate this interest, I shadowed one of my dad’s friends for a summer at his broad litigation firm in Virginia. And the firm helped people and business owners in the community, and also still had time for family, all while doing pretty well for themselves. It was after that summer, going into my junior year of college, that I knew I wanted to practice law. 

I was not the greatest student in middle and high school, and even throughout college. But I was really good at standardized tests, and that kinda carried me through up until law school. And it was in law school where I really learned how to be a good student and turned on my academic side. 

After graduating from William & Mary, I started to apply all over the country to different law schools. But my decision to go to law school at UC Davis was heavily influenced by my parents, who were already here in Southern California. And then, just sort of by luck, I got the best employment opportunity and moved to Los Angeles right after graduation. 

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ROBERT X LAW

WHERE DID YOU FIRST PRACTICE LAW? 💼 

My first job was with a big law firm, Greenberg Traurig, within their litigation department. A lot of the cases that I was involved with were defending consumer class action lawsuits, and a lot of those, especially here in California, have to do with false advertising. And I learned through being involved within this practice area, that I liked the law of advertising more than the other areas that I was exposed to. 

Advertising law is just more inherently interesting to me. It’s the psychology that goes into advertising and how marketers are always trying to innovate, to test and figure out what drives sales, and then courts trying to grapple with the laws and regulations that are designed to protect consumers. 

An example in this work would be partnering with a video game company. ‘Hey, can you look at these TV spots or these ads?’ Let us know what the risks are. Let us know if our competitors have gotten in trouble for something similar. And then based on that, I provided my feedback on any recommendations, things that we might change. 

And then around 2019, right before COVID happened, I decided to start my own firm. I did not want to stay at a big firm for the rest of my career, so I left Greenberg and started my own thing.

WHAT IS YOUR CLIENTELE? CASE DOCKET? 🧑‍⚖️ 

The majority of my clients are consumer brands, marketers, ad agencies, and talent agencies. I do work with creators from time-to-time, but it is less common now than other types of clients that I work with. 

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO SOMEONE LOOKING FOR A FIRM? 🤝 

I would say for anybody looking for a lawyer, really in any kind of practice area, is to have a conversation with that person, either through a consultation or just some way to have a conversation. See if you like that person, if you get a good sense that this person knows what they're talking about. And by that, I mean, do they understand the industry that you're in? Can they speak the language of advertising, or whatever it is that you might do? And is there a personality fit? If yes, then that’s probably a good sign of a working relationship. 

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ROBERT X LA LIFE

WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES? 🤝 

About a year and a half ago I decided to get into electronic music production, I’ve been obsessed with it. I did not realize how much there is to learn, and how much I would enjoy the process of learning about music production. How the sound works…where the sounds that you hear in tracks come from…learning about mixing and mastering, composing tracks….

I have a much deeper appreciation for all the music that I listen to in all genres, it’s fantastic. So music production is my main thing, and then I enjoy the automotive culture in Los Angeles and our car community. There’s a number of groups that get together and organize drives around some of the great roads we have around here.

WHAT ARE YOU READING? WATCHING? 📚️ 

My girlfriend and I just started watching Severance. I didn’t see the first season, so I was a bit behind, so we are now just about to start season two. 

And I just finished this book called, ‘This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession.’ The book explores the science behind all the different areas of the brain and how we listen to, and compose, music affects. It’s an amazing read. 

WHAT IS A MENTALITY THAT YOU TRY TO LIVE BY? 🧠 

I don’t know who originally said this, but my friend said it to me once in college and it’s pretty straightforward: 

I feel stoicism has had a surge in popularity the past few years, a bit overplayed, but that quote is a stoic reflection-like focus on what you can control. That is, whatever you have to do, do your best at it. Try not to let things out of your control take up too much of your mental space or derail you from doing your best. 

FAVORITE LA MORNING HANGOUT SPOT? ☕️ 

Newcomb’s Ranch on Angeles Crest Highway. 

There’s a group of guys that will go there on Friday mornings and it’s one of the best drives that you can have, and that’s the meetup spot, and it’s said to be reopening here in the near future.

FAVORITE LA EVENING HANGOUT SPOT? 🪩 

AOC on Third Street. 

It’s my favorite restaurant in Los Angeles. My girlfriend and I had our first date there, and then every year on that same date, we will go back and have dinner, and on a couple of other dates throughout the year. From my perspective, AOC is the best overall restaurant in Los Angeles and I just like the vibe there. 

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE LOS ANGELES? 🤙 

I would say Los Angeles is a place that has something for everybody. Whatever you are into, no matter how niche or obscure it is, there is probably a significant group of people that are into the same thing. You can find them and nerd out about whatever it is with them.

HOW WOULD LOS ANGELES DESCRIBE ROBERT FREUND? 🤷‍♂️ 

I’m a bit of a homebody. Something has to be really interesting to really get me excited for me to make time for it. Most weekends, I’m spending time with my girlfriend and my dog, sort of being at home or seeing a friend or two. So probably some people in LA wish they'd see more of me. I can be such a recluse sometimes.

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