The Am Law Daily (May 4, 2016) - As data breaches and ransomware attacks have become mainstream threats to companies in all industries, law firms continue to respond by bulking up their cybersecurity practices.
In the latest such hire, the former chairman of Dentons’ privacy and cybersecurity group, Andy Roth, has moved to Cooley. Roth joined legacy firm SNR Denton in 2012 from American Express Co., where he spent six years as chief privacy officer.
Michael Rhodes, co-chair of Cooley’s data privacy and protection group, said that while litigators have worked on data breaches for a decade, the cybersecurity practice has become increasingly important to corporate attorneys within the last three years.
“What’s happened is that the privacy, data protection [and] cyber world has transformed senior corporate management,” Rhodes said. Boards of directors, especially of Internet and technology companies, need advice on setting up their businesses so that they are in compliance with state, federal and international privacy statutes.
Roth typically advises large corporations, but is interested in startup technology companies. In 2014 he co-founded one himself along with “three brilliant kids in Williamsburg,” a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, called privacy.com. The company allows customers to make online purchases with virtual burner Visa cards that can only be used once.