Kristen Mathews

Kristen is at the forefront of complex privacy and cybersecurity issues, advising clients on compliance with US federal and state privacy laws and European data protection laws. Her skills and knowledge are sought by companies across industries to address a wide range of legal and advisory needs covering regulatory compliance, contracts, preparedness and data breach incident response.

Kristen’s industry knowledge is vast, with more than 20 years of experience advising clients in the sectors of technology, financial, retail, consumer goods and services, healthcare, insurance, media, education, auto, utilities, sports and hospitality.

Her privacy and cybersecurity experience includes guiding clients on compliance with data privacy laws, such as laws that regulate the collection, use and sharing of personal information, adtech, brain tech, kid and teen tech, direct marketing and artificial intelligence (AI). She also addresses data issues in critical transactional matters – such as M&A deals and important commercial services agreements – and helps clients prevent, prepare for and respond to cybersecurity breaches.

Most recently, Kristen has built a reputation as a thought leader on privacy issues with the development and use of AI, establishing herself as one of the top lawyers in her field. She advises leaders on cutting-edge projects involving licensing data to train AI, collecting consumer consents for the use of their data to train AI, as well as to make decisions that affect their lives using AI, and compliance with emerging laws and other complex issues regarding AI. Additionally, she is on the board of a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promulgate ethical guidelines for the use of AI by companies.

A few examples of Kristen’s recent work examples include:

• Assisted a global business-to-consumer (B2C) company in investigating, responding to and defending claims brought in relation to a cybersecurity data breach that affected a large volume of consumers and other businesses
• Assisted a Big Tech company to determine youth protection enhancements for its product offerings
• Assisted dozens of consumer businesses in determining and implementing practical plans of action to comply with myriad state consumer privacy laws
• Advised an AI startup company regarding the collection of consent from individuals to collect their personal information to train an AI product, and regarding its licensing of training data and AI models to other businesses
• Alongside her busy practice, Kristen uses her privacy knowledge to provide pro bono services; she has worked with nonprofits that help individuals and families improve their economic and social well-being and has advised charities on incident response following cyber and ransomware attacks

Kristen continues to be at the forefront of developments in privacy and cybersecurity as ever-changing issues affect businesses around the world.