Melissa Landau Steinman is a partner in Venable’s Regulatory Group, focusing on advertising, marketing and new media, as well as distribution antitrust. She works with clients from every sector of industry at every stage of distributing consumer products and services, counseling some of the nation’s largest CPG brands, retailers and technology companies on advertising and promotions, distribution, pricing, warranties, product safety and other matters. She has represented clients in both private and government litigation, and also has appeared before self-regulatory bodies such as the National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureaus.

 Ms. Steinman has extensive experience in consumer promotions law, with specialized expertise in social media, gift cards, incentives and loyalty programs, and promotional sweepstakes and contests law. Her unusual depth of experience with prize promotions combines knowledge of the law of promotions, electronic media, regulatory law and issues such as privacy and intellectual property, and Ms. Steinman has worked on a diverse range of gaming issues relating to matters ranging from game shows to video gambling to social media and text messaging promotions.  In addition, Ms. Steinman has worked extensively with clients seeking to create gift card programs or to address the consumer protection, abandoned property, banking/money laundering and other compliance issues that may arise in connection with those programs.

Ms. Steinman is a frequent lecturer and writer on topics relevant to promotions and advertising law, particularly social media, prize promotions and gift card topics.  She contributed chapters to the American Bar Association's update of its Consumer Protection Law Handbook and the Promotion Marketing Association's treatise on Promotion Marketing Law, and her commentary on social media, sweepstakes and other promotional activities has appeared nationally in publications as prominent as the Los Angeles Times. Ms. Steinman wrote and edited the "Guide to Federal and State Regulation of Advertising," a comprehensive two volume book/CD-ROM on the law of advertising and promotions. She is currently editing the social media and charitable sales promotions chapters for an upcoming ABA Handbook on advertising claims substantiation. 

 Ms. Steinman was recognized in the 2010-2012 editions of Legal500 for her work in sweepstakes and social media advertising law.  She served as a Director on the Board of the Promotion Marketing Association from 2009-2012, and is a co-chair of the PMA’s 34th Annual Promotion Law Conference.  Ms. Steinman received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her A.B. cum laude from Columbia University.