Kristen C. Rodriguez

Kristen C. Rodriguez is a Partner at Dentons, based in New York and Chicago. She is a first-chair trial lawyer who focuses on high-stakes Commercial Litigation matters in state and federal courts across the country.

Named as one of the "Most Influential Minority Lawyers" in Chicago and one of the ABA's "Top 40 Young Lawyers," her experience includes defending consumer privacy class actions, including subscriber privacy and marketing disputes. In her media and First Amendment practice, Kristen assists publishers and broadcasters in matters involving defamation, invasion of privacy, media access, reporter's privilege and freedom of information laws.

As the immediate past co-Chairperson of Dentons' US Culture and Engagement Committee, Kristen promotes culture and engagement throughout the firm, and develops educational initiatives for Dentons attorneys and clients.

Her experience includes serving as lead counsel for multiple media companies—including a leading national newspaper, Condé Nast and Consumer Reports—in class action lawsuits alleging violations under various states' automatic renewal laws. Most recently, she prevailed on behalf of a publisher in the first class action under Oregon's automatic renewal law and successfully compelled individual arbitration in a class action suit brought against an online sports publisher under California's automatic renewal law.

She also represented a dozen media companies in separate multimillion-dollar class actions alleging violations of Michigan's Preservation of Personal Privacy Act, achieving a complete victory for Redbox on summary judgment and successfully compelling individual arbitration for Dow Jones in a decision upheld by the Second Circuit. She led the representation of Condé Nast, Consumer Reports and Trusted Media Brands, Inc. in novel class actions alleging violations of right of publicity laws in dozens of states based on the inclusion of subscribers' names on mailing lists sold for profit, achieving dismissal in all of the cases.

She represented and advised multiple media companies on compliance with the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), including representing Redbox in its defeat of one of the first VPPA class actions ever litigated, and AMC in its precedent-setting dismissal of a class action regarding the use of Facebook's pixel on one of AMC's websites. She also achieved dismissal of a multi-count defamation action brought by a Chicago public official against NBC and the Better Government Association, which was affirmed by the First District of the Illinois Appellate Court, and obtained summary judgment for Lincoln Benefit Life Company in a putative US$1 billion nationwide class action, which was affirmed on appeal by the Seventh Circuit.

She is ranked Band 3 for Media and Entertainment Litigation in Illinois by Chambers USA (2026), listed as a Recognized Lawyer by The Legal 500 (2023), named one of the 2018 American Bar Association On the Rise – Top 40 Young Lawyers, and selected to Crain's Chicago Business list of "Most Influential Minority Lawyers in Chicago."

She holds a JD from the University of Michigan Law School (2009) and a BA, cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame (2004). She is a member of the Public Interest Law Initiative Board of Directors and the Hispanic National Bar Foundation Board of Directors.