Grace Whitcombe

Profile

Grace Whitcombe is a partner in the Chicago office of Corvane Ryle LLP and Head of the firm's Consumer Protection practice. She counsels consumer-facing companies on advertising, pricing, subscriptions and promotions, and defends them in investigations by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general.

Grace's clients are concentrated in retail and consumer products and hospitality, where marketing practices change quickly and enforcement risk follows. She works with in-house teams to review claims before launch, remediate problems when they arise and, where needed, resolve matters with regulators and in class action litigation.

Her recent insights include Click-to-Cancel After the Courts, Drip Pricing and Junk Fees and AI-Generated Advertising: Disclosure, Substantiation and Synthetic Media Risk.

Experience

Grace Whitcombe's representative matters include the following, many of which are confidential and described in general terms.

• Defended Halvern Retail Group in a multistate investigation of promotional pricing and reference price practices, resolved without monetary penalties.
• Advised Brightmoor Foods on a nationwide overhaul of its subscription enrollment and cancellation flows to align with the FTC's negative option rule and state automatic renewal laws.
• Represented Larkspur Apparel in a putative class action concerning sitewide discount advertising, securing dismissal at the pleading stage.
• Counseled Castellan Hotels on all-in price display and resort fee disclosure across its US portfolio.
• Advised a live-events ticketing company on drip pricing, fee transparency and refund policies under state and federal law.
• Led the consumer protection workstream for Northwall Capital's acquisition of a direct-to-consumer subscription brand.
• Defended Fennwick Home in a Civil Investigative Demand concerning online customer reviews and endorsements.
• Advised a national pharmacy chain on loyalty program terms, gift card rules and unclaimed property exposure.
• Represented a consumer electronics company in an inquiry by a state attorney general into warranty and repair disclosures.
• Counseled a multi-brand apparel retailer on influencer marketing guidelines and a program for monitoring affiliate compliance.
• Advised Ashgrove Motors on advertising for electric vehicle range, incentives and financing offers.
• Established a training and monitoring program on advertising substantiation for a global cosmetics company.
• Advised Quillon Payments on marketing and disclosure practices for a buy-now-pay-later product.

Qualifications

Bar admissions

• State Bar of Illinois
• US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
• US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

Education

• JD, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
• BA, Communications, University of Michigan