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Renard  C.  François

Nashville
P:(615) 742-7792
F:(615) 248-2384

Practices

Education
John Marshall Law School - LL.M., 2001
George Washington University - J.D., 1998
University of Pennsylvania - B.A., 1994

Bar Admissions
Tennessee, 2005
New York, 2002

Memberships
Nashville Bar Association
Tennessee Bar Association
American Bar Association
Defense Research Institute

Honors & Distinctions
Member, U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Data Integrity & Privacy Advisory Committee



Renard François joined Bass, Berry & Sims PLC in December of 2004, and is an associate in the firm's Litigation Practice Area as well as the Intellectual Property and Technology Practice Area.  He focuses his practice on intellectual property litigation, business litigation and data security.  In particular, Renard advises clients on how to respond to data security breaches and identifies their obligations for data protection under applicable state laws and relevant federal regulations.

Renard currently serves on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Data Integrity & Privacy Advisory Committee.  This Committee provides advice to the Secretary of Homeland Security on a variety of issues that affect individual privacy, data integrity and data interoperability.  Prior to joining the firm, Renard was an attorney advisor to the director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C.  As an attorney advisor, he focused on issues related to data security, privacy and identity theft as part of his duties reviewing cases and settlements and assisted in defining the FTC's policy in those areas. Prior to becoming an attorney advisor, Renard served as a staff attorney in the FTC's Division of Marketing Practices, where he handled a variety of federal court litigation, including unfair and deceptive acts and practices, Internet fraud and spam.  He also briefed White House and Congressional staff  and FTC commissioners on issues in the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 ("CAN-SPAM Act") and other spam-related legislative proposals. 

Renard is the author of Fair Warning: Preemption and Navigating the Bermuda Triangle of E-Sign, UETA and State Digital Signature Laws and is a recipient of the Federal Trade Commission's Stephen Nye Award, given annually for outstanding work performed by a junior attorney.  He has served as a panelist at numerous legal education seminars on subjects such as Internet invasions of privacy, information security, spam and federal laws governing cyberspace.  He also served as a guest lecturer at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Illinois, on such issues as spam and laws governing contracting over the Internet.

Renard graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in history.  He received his J.D. from the George Washington University Law School and his LL.M. in information technology & privacy law from the John Marshall Law School.

He is a member of the American Bar Association, the Tennessee Bar Association, the Nashville Bar Association and the Defense Research Institute.  He is admitted to practice in New York and Tennessee.

Presentations and Speeches 

  • "A New Frontier in Privacy Litigation:  The Advent of Private Lawsuits Over Data Security Breaches," American Bar Association's Annual Meeting, New York, NY (August 2008).
  • "Ways Your Confidential and Customer Information Can Be Lost or Stolen," Executive Briefing Breakfast, Nashville, TN (June 2008).
  • "Green Lights & Red Flags:  FTC Rules of the Road for Advertisers" Tennessee Bar Association, Nashville, TN (May 2008).
  • "Litigating and Contracting User-Generated Content," Vanderbilt University Law School, Journal of Entertainment Law Symposium on User-Generated Confusion:  The Legal and Business Implications of Web 2.0, Nashville, TN (November 2007).
  • "Innovation and Competition," Nashville Minority Economic Development Seminar, Nashville, TN (September 2007).
  • "Drivers Ed:  A Roadmap for the Cyber Road," American Bar Association's Litigation Section Annual Meeting, New York,, NY (April 2005).
  • "Federal Regulatory Update on Commercial Email," MediaPost Forecast 2004, New York (October 2003).
  • "Cybercrimes and Other Internet Invasions of Privacy," American Bar Association's Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA (August 2004).
  • "The Federal Trade Commission's War on Spam," Keynote Speaker, DoubleClick's Anti-Spam Summit, New York, NY (September 2003).
  • "Open Relays/Open Proxies/FormMail Scripts," Moderator, Federal Trade Commission's Spam Forum, Washington, DC (May 2003).
  • "Falsity in Sending Spam," Moderator, Federal Trade Commission's Spam Forum, Washington, DC (May 2003).
  • "The Federal Trade Commission and Cyberspace," American Bar Association's Litigation Section Annual Meeting, Houston, TX (April 2003).
  • "Batten Down the Hatches:  Securing Your Business in Cyberspace from Hackers and Lawyers," Annual Corporate Counsel Meeting, American Bar Association, Miami, FL (February 2003).
  • "Unsolicited Commercial Email and Government Regulation," Conference on E-Mail Marketing and Spam, Chicago, IL (September 2002).
  • "Using the Internet to Investigate Websites," Internet Fraud Investigations Training Seminar, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (October 2001).