Several members of MoFo’s Privacy + Data Security Group were recently selected to appear in the 2022 edition of Best Lawyers in America and were also recognized by The Legal 500 2021, and the fact that they were all women was not lost on the firm. We could not be more proud of the work that all of our attorneys do serving our clients every day, and are particularly pleased to see the talented women of our Privacy + Data Security team be honored for their continued emphasis on excellent client service and innovative legal solutions.
Three women were named to the “Ones to Watch” list in Best Lawyers in America 2022, including Melissa Crespo, Tiffany Quach, and Mary Race. This series recognizes lawyers who have been in practice for less than 10 years in the United States. Another three women have been recognized as “Best Lawyers,” specifically Tiffany Cheung and Purvi G. Patel, who have consistently appeared on the list since 2016, and Miriam Wugmeister, who is co-chair of the group and has appeared on the list since 2011.The women join 39 other MoFo lawyers who appeared in the publication in recognition of their contributions to their practice areas.
Established in 1983, Best Lawyers is one of the oldest peer-review publications in the legal profession. The publication’s methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
MoFo’s Privacy + Data Security Group received an overall Tier 1 ranking in the “Cyber Law” category (which includes data privacy and data protection). Lawyers recommended from the group include associates Tiffany Quach (Key Lawyer) and Mary Race (Key Lawyer), of counsel Melissa Crespo (Rising Star), and partners Christine Lyon (Recommended), Julie O’Neill (Leading Lawyers), and Purvi G. Patel (Recommended). Partners Kristen Mathews and Miriam Wugmeister, who is co-chair of the group, are listed in The Legal 500 Hall of Fame.
MoFo’s Privacy + Data Security Group is no stranger to earned recognition from top legal publications, like Best Lawyers, Chambers and The Legal 500. A large part of the group’s success can be traced back to the practice’s beginnings and an early focus on ensuring that it was built to not only deliver excellent client service, but also to embrace innovation and diversity.
While the field of privacy has long included many senior and powerful women, as co-chair, Miriam has made it a point to ensure that the firm brings people to the practice from a variety of different backgrounds. Her dedication to identifying, recruiting, and retaining diverse, LGBTQ+, and women attorneys is rooted in her belief that the practice and the broader legal community as a whole are improved with the addition of every underrepresented person who joins and succeeds in the field.
In a special episode of the firm’s Diversity in Practice podcast series, Melissa spoke with Miriam, who mentored her, about why diversity in practice is important to them and to the group, why they have stayed in big law, and what concrete steps others can take to achieve a more diverse team.
The Data Security team at Morrison & Foerster provides creative and practical advice concerning all stages of information lifecycles, from privacy compliance to incident response, counseling, litigating cases, and representing clients before regulators around the world. Their extensive experience with data protection laws and their geographic reach uniquely positions them to handle virtually any privacy or data security issue anywhere in the world. The team’s broad capabilities are evidenced by their recent work dealing with the complexities of Chinese Cyber Security Law, Privacy Shield/SCHREMS II, and in representing FireEye in connection with its cybersecurity investigation into the SolarWinds compromise, one of largest and most significant breaches in recent history. The firm has a portfolio featuring key players in the areas of pharmaceuticals (Pfizer), sportswear (Adidas), and social media (Facebook), as well as hundreds of organizations, from ambitious startups to global industry leaders, including nearly half of the Fortune 50, as well as leading companies across all sectors.