Phyllis Hurwitz Marcus

Phyllis Hurwitz Marcus serves as Vice President, BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division. 

In this role, Marcus leads a team of attorneys and professionals at BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division holding national advertising across all media types to high standards of truth and accuracy by reviewing truth-in-advertising challenges from businesses, trade associations, consumers, or on its own initiative. Through its work, thousands of misleading advertising claims have been removed from the marketplace and its case decisions represent the single largest body interpreting advertising law in the country. 

Recognized as a Leader in Advertising: Transactional & Regulatory by Chambers USA (2021- 2024), one of the Top 10 Advertising: Transactional & Regulatory Lawyers in the USA, Business Today (2023), and a Media and Advertising Law Trailblazer by The National Law Journal (2023), Marcus comes to BBB National Programs from Hunton Andrews Kurth, LLP, where as a Washington, DC-based partner she led the firm’s Advertising Compliance and Counseling team, focusing her practice on understanding and meeting the clients’ advertising needs, from the initial development of a claim to its ultimate defense in the marketplace. Marcus also led the Children’s Privacy practice at Hunton. 

Prior to joining Hunton in 2015, Marcus served for 17 years at the FTC, where she was Chief of Staff for Advertising Practices and leader of the FTC’s children’s privacy regulatory and enforcement program. While at the FTC, Marcus oversaw the agency’s advertising workload; led investigations into deceptive health and safety claims, product endorsements, and disclosures; and handled congressional testimony regarding FTC advertising initiatives. 

Marcus is a frequent author and sought-after speaker on advertising and children privacy issues, including their intersection with other areas of law, such as the internet and social media, and the metaverse and AI. She has spoken at conferences across the country and been interviewed numerous times by media outlets. 

Marcus is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and earned her juris doctorate, cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School. Earlier in her career, she clerked for the Honorable John C. Eldridge of the Supreme Court of Maryland, was a litigation associate at a major law firm, and legal director for a prominent foundation.