Gretchen M. Rutz
Practice Areas
Industries
Education
- The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, J.D., 2019, summa cum laude
- Ohio State Law Journal, online editor
- Capital University, Bachelors of Music, 2016, summa cum laude
Bar & Court Admissions
Gretchen is an associate in the Vorys Columbus office and a member of the firm’s commercial and retail group. As part of her practice, she drafts and negotiates a wide variety of agreements including non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements, license agreements, terms of use, terms of sale, sourcing agreements, and services agreements. Gretchen has experience drafting and negotiating event agreements and influencer agreements, with a passion for tracking the growing industry of social media influencers across various platforms.
Gretchen is also an active member of the firm’s privacy & data security practice. She has experience drafting website terms, conducting legal research, and advising clients on the application of U.S. state and federal privacy laws, including the CCPA, CPRA, BIPA, CDPA, FERPA, TCPA, and COPPA, as well as advising clients on GDPR compliance. Gretchen’s practice focuses on corporate, commercial, and retail transactions. Prior to joining Vorys, Gretchen was a judicial extern for the Ohio Supreme Court, performing legal research, editing drafts for majority and dissenting opinions, and drafting memoranda analyzing discretionary and certified conflict appeals.
Gretchen received her J.D. summa cum laude from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, where she was a member of the Student Bar Association and an online editor of the Ohio State Law Journal. She received her Bachelors of Music summa cum laude from Capital University, conducting her student teaching in band and choir. She regularly sings with the Lancaster Chorale and is a board member of Early Music in Columbus.
Honors & Awards
- CALI Excellence for the Future Awards in Trademarks, 2017
- CALI Excellence for the Future Awards in LAW II, 2017
- CALI Excellence for the Future Awards in Transactional Practice, 2017
- CALI Excellence for the Future Awards in Law & Religion, 2018
- CALI Excellence for the Future Awards in Advanced Constitutional Law, 2018
- CALI Excellence for the Future Awards in Privacy Law, 2018
- CALI Excellence for the Future Awards in Advanced Legal Writing, 2018
- CALI Excellence for the Future Awards in Big Data Law and Policy, 2018
- CALI Excellence for the Future Awards in Legal Negotiations, 2019
- CALI Excellence for the Future Awards in Energy Law, 2019
- The Ohio State University Chapter of The Order of the Coif, 2019
- John J. Adams Memorial Award, 2019
News
- 1/29/2021Vorys recently advised Worthington Industries, Inc. in connection with the acquisition by its Pressure Cylinders segment of General Tools & Instruments Company LLC (General Tools), a provider of feature-rich, specialized tools in various categories including environmental health & safety, precision measurement & layout, home repair & remodel, lawn & garden and specific purpose tools.
- 11/13/2019Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP is pleased to welcome nine new first-year associates to the firm. Matt Gutierrez, Amanda Miggo, Francisco Rolon and Gretchen Rutz joined the Columbus office; Jacob Bartlett, Megan Hurd and Stephen Self joined the Cincinnati office; Anne Hurst and Cauley Simmons joined the Cleveland office; and Reed Fryar and Joseph Markell joined the Houston office.
Events
- 10/27/2021Vorys attorneys Allen Rutz and Gretchen Rutz spoke at the 2021 Ohio Transportation Engineering Conference (OTEC) regarding expectations of privacy and ethical issues in using email communications.
- 7/13/2021Vorys attorneys conducted a presentation at the NRF Retail Law Summit 2021 titled "Ecommerce: Legal Issues Tangled in the Web."
- 2/25/2021Vorys attorneys Chris Ingram and Gretchen Rutz will host a webinar to discuss the newly approved California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA), a new privacy law that significantly expands California residents’ privacy rights beyond those previously created by the California Consumer Privacy Act.
- 10/29/2020Vorys attorneys Allen Rutz and Gretchen Rutz discussed the ethical duty of engineers to protect sensitive data in the evolving age of privacy and cybersecurity.
Insights
- 6/10/2022Last week, the U.S. House and Senate released a discussion draft of the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA). This is the first bipartisan data privacy bill released at the federal level. The introduction of the ADPPA comes in the wake of a profusion of comprehensive state data privacy laws passed and considered over the last few months. To date, five states have passed comprehensive privacy laws, including Connecticut just last month. If passed, the ADPPA would largely preempt state privacy laws, with some narrow exceptions.
- 5/25/2022On May 10, 2022, Connecticut became the fifth state to pass a comprehensive privacy law.
- 3/25/2022On March 24, 2022, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed into law the fourth state comprehensive privacy law in the United States.
- 2/21/2022On January 28, 2022, California Attorney General Rob Bonta sent notices to several businesses offering loyalty programs to California consumers, alleging noncompliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) for failure to provide adequate notice of their financial incentive programs.
- 10/18/2021Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued notices to over 700 companies warning against fake reviews, misleading endorsements, and other business advertising practices that run counter to past administrative case decisions.
- 8/18/2021Download a quick primer on recent trends in state name/image/likeness laws
- 7/7/2021Last week, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed an executive order allowing collegiate athletes to benefit from their name, image, and likeness in Ohio. Governor DeWine’s executive order came only a few days after Ohio’s promising name/image/likeness (NIL) bill stalled in the House of Representatives.
- 6/9/2021This week, the Colorado House of Representatives passed a new state privacy bill by a vote of 57-7.
- 5/5/2021Florida lawmakers failed to pass an expansive privacy law before the legislative session adjourned last Friday.
- 4/26/2021Last week, the Florida House of Representatives passed a new privacy bill, House Bill 969, by a vote of 118-1.
- 3/3/2021Yesterday, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (CDPA) into law.
- 2/22/2021Last week, Virginia’s Senate and House of Delegates sent identical versions of a new privacy bill to Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s desk.
- 1/20/2021After failing to pass in 2019 and 2020, the Washington state legislature has introduced a comprehensive consumer privacy law for a third year in a row.
- 1/8/2021On January 6, New York legislators introduced Assembly Bill 27, the Biometric Privacy Act (BPA).
- 12/14/2020On December 10, 2020, the California Attorney General proposed modifications to its recent California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) regulations.
- 11/4/2020California voters are set to approve the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA).
- 9/29/2020Governor Gavin Newson signed a bill on Friday, September 25 to amend the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to exempt certain health information from the CCPA, among other things.
- 9/28/2020On September 23, at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event, Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill announced his intention to establish a rule to give businesses an incentive to implement cybersecurity plans to protect Indiana consumers’ information from cyberattacks.
- 9/2/2020On Sunday, August 30th, the California Legislature passed AB 1281, a bill extending the business-to-business and employee carve-outs to California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) compliance until January 1, 2022.
- 7/27/2020Leaving businesses scrambling, the European Union Court of Justice invalidated the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield on July 16, 2020. Late last week, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) published twelve Frequently Asked Questions on the judgment.
- 7/16/2020On July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union invalidated reliance on the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield program for the transfer of data from within the EU to entities within the U.S.
- 6/26/2020On June 24, the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) became eligible for the November 2020 general election ballot in California. The CPRA would expand and amend the recently-operable California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
- 6/5/2020On June 1, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra submitted the final proposed regulations to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to the California Office of Administrative Law (OAL).
- 5/7/2020U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, John Thune, Jerry Moran, and Marsha Blackburn recently announced their plan to introduce the COVID-19 Consumer Data Protection Act, seeking to provide Americans more transparency and control over the collection and use of “covered data” during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
- 4/14/2020Although the draft regulations implementing the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) have not been finalized, businesses are already encountering a wave of CCPA class action lawsuits.
- 3/12/2020Yesterday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra released a third set of draft regulations (the New Modifications) implementing the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
- 2/18/2020Washington legislators recently reintroduced the Washington Privacy Act (WPA). Learn more about this draft bill.
- 11/21/2018Gretchen Rutz, an associate in the Vorys Columbus, authored an op-ed for The Columbus Dispatch titled “Column: Predictive analytics could help prevent student suicides.”