SEPTEMBER 24, 2018 – Davis Wright Tremaine continues the expansion of its privacy and security team, bringing on former Department of Justice privacy head Nancy Libin to head the team and co-chair its Technology + Privacy & Security practice. Libin joins the firm from Jenner & Block, where she served as chair of the firm’s data privacy and cybersecurity practice. She will replace Davis Wright’s current PrivSec chair, Christin McMeley, who is joining longtime firm client Comcast in October.
“Nancy is an outstanding lawyer, and we look forward to her continuing to expand the firm’s practice, especially in light of sweeping new California privacy legislation and multiple newly launched federal privacy initiatives,” said firm managing partner, Jeff Gray. “We hate to lose Christin but this is a terrific opportunity for her, and we are grateful for the tremendous work she has done building our firm’s privacy and security team.”
“Technology, from cloud services to AI to IoT, is inextricably tied to privacy and security issues,” said Wendy Kearns, a technology partner based in Seattle who will co-chair the practice with Libin. “Nancy and I will work closely to keep our focus on providing integrated services to our clients, including global technology companies, healthcare providers, media and communications firms, financial services companies – and pretty much any other company that relies on technology in its business model.”
Prior to working at Jenner & Block, Libin served as chief privacy and civil liberties officer at the U.S. Department of Justice and as counsel to then-Senator Joe Biden on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. She also worked on digital privacy, internet policy and consumer data protection at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a public policy organization that focuses on privacy and internet law.
“I am very excited to join this terrific team,” said Libin. “I look forward to working with Wendy and all the members of our Technology + Privacy & Security team to continue to build on the great foundation that was laid before my arrival.”
In more than five years at Davis Wright, McMeley helped build a strong privacy and security team that has grown rapidly. This year alone, the team added seven lawyers, including DOJ litigator Christopher Ott and Helen Goff Foster, who spent 20 years working on privacy, cybersecurity and consumer protection as an attorney at the White House, in four federal agencies and in private practice. The firm’s 24/7 breach response team assists companies in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from information security incidents. The team analyzes and reports on privacy and security issues at https://www.privsecblog.com and publishes a map of U.S. data breach notification statutes at https://www.dwt.com/statedatabreachstatutes.
About Davis Wright Tremaine
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is a national law firm with more than 550 lawyers representing clients based throughout the United States and around the world. For more information, visit www.dwt.com.