Phyllis Sumner

Practice Areas

Phyllis B. Sumner is a Partner in the firm's Atlanta office and the firm's Chief Privacy Officer. She leads the firm's Data, Privacy and Security Practice and regularly counsels corporate boards, senior executives and other clients on cybersecurity preparedness, emergency response, remediation, compliance, internal and regulatory enforcement investigations, and data breach and privacy litigation.

Phyllis is a crisis manager and trial lawyer, who works with her clients' legal, compliance and business teams to strategize, manage and defend when significant privacy and security issues arise. She has assisted clients with their response to and management of hundreds of data security incidents and has represented clients defending against class actions and regulator investigations in some of the largest and most high-profile data security incidents.

Ms. Sumner served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for eight years, first for the Northern District of Illinois and then for the Northern District of Georgia, prosecuting high-profile cases such as Eric Rudolph, the Centennial Olympic Park bomber.