Chris Cwalina

Risk advisory; Information governance, privacy and cybersecurity

Chris Cwalina is the Global Co-Head of Data Protection, Privacy and Cybersecurity and concentrates his international practice on cybersecurity and privacy compliance and program development, with a focus on complex cybersecurity attack and data breach investigations, primarily involving sophisticated threat actor groups and advanced persistent threats focused on critical infrastructure entities. Having been in-house for a decade, Chris understands clients' challenges, priorities, and concerns, and knows what clients expect from their outside counsel.

Chris has managed some of the largest data breaches that have occurred. He began his career in privacy as vice president and assistant general counsel at ChoicePoint Inc., where he ran the company's Privacy, Compliance, Ethics and Credentialing Department and helped lead the company's response to the first publicly-reported data breach. This occurred at a time when only one state breach notification law had been enacted. While at ChoicePoint, Chris helped the company respond to a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation and complaint, Congressional inquiry, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation, an investigation and complaint brought by a coalition of state attorneys general offices, as well as managed a number of class-action complaints.