They’ve Got Next: Privacy and Cybersecurity Fresh Face Veronica Glick

Veronica Glick grew up in Switzerland and the United Kingdom, where her experience adapting to different cultures made her interested in global work.

Now a partner at Mayer Brown in Washington, D.C., Glick concentrates on cross-border cybersecurity incidents and state-sponsored hacking.

She advises clients across sectors, from manufacturing and defense to health care and telecommunications. Her work involves coordinating with law enforcement and regulators, as well as managing notifications to consumers in the aftermath of a data breach.

“What’s fascinating to me about cyber is that it brings together all these issues and touches on every sector of the economy,” Glick said.

As one of the lead lawyers advising a Fortune 500 company that faced a cyber extortion attack by malicious actors that impacted its business across three continents, Glick was able to draw on her international experience to coordinate the response. She worked closely with law enforcement in the U.S. and Europe and navigated notifications to, and engagement with, regulators in multiple jurisdictions.

She’s also worked with manufacturing, health-care, and financial sector clients facing ransomware attacks, which are an increasingly common and costly cybersecurity risk.

“Ransomware is a complicated threat now for almost every client,” she said. When hackers demand a ransom to unlock compromised systems, the situation forces Glick and her clients to confront legal, technological, and reputational considerations in a short time frame.

She joined Mayer Brown as an associate in 2017 and became a partner in January.

In her pro bono work, Glick advises on legal issues for a bipartisan commission that Congress tasked with developing a comprehensive strategy for defending the U.S. from cyberattacks. She serves as the Cyberspace Solarium Commission’s deputy chief counsel for cybersecurity and national security.

Her work for the commission has included providing legal advice on cybersecurity, national security, and international law, along with guidance for the commission’s policy recommendations and subsequent legislative proposals and white papers.

Many of the commission’s 82 policy recommendations from 2020 are in progress or completed, according to a recent report. That includes the formation of Office of the National Cyber Director, led by Chris Inglis, who began his new role in July.

Glick said it’s “a privilege” to support the commission’s important work toward building national resilience against cyberattacks.

“Providing legal guidance on the incredibly broad range of topics that have been tackled by the commission—from global cyber diplomacy to liability protections—has been very rewarding,” she said.

Glick also has worked on a pro bono basis at what she called “the intersection of data privacy and counterterrorism.”

She serves as a member of a United Nations experts committee focused on countering terrorism through information and communications technologies. The committee’s aim is to prevent terrorists from exploiting such technologies and to facilitate the sharing of digital evidence while balancing privacy protections.

As part of that work, Glick was the lead associate for a counterterrorism project with 30 lawyers across five continents. The team prepared research and analysis on international, regional, and local approaches to privacy protections as countries adopt new tools for evidence collection in criminal and counterterrorism investigations.

Glick said Mayer Brown has been supportive of her pro bono work, particularly her mentor Raj De, who leads the firm’s global cybersecurity and data privacy practice, along with its national security practice. He recruited Glick from another law firm, Debevoise & Plimpton.

“I’m very fortunate that I’ve been able to pursue these pro bono projects that are important to me,” Glick said.

De said Glick’s knowledge, dynamism, and practicality make her stand out. So does her international background, which he said “helps color her perspective on thinking globally for our clients.”

“Cybersecurity and data privacy really know no bounds in terms of the issue they raise,” De said.

Glick was “instrumental” in the global cyber extortion incident that Mayer Brown handled, he said, adding that she was a lead member of the team assisting the corporate client with its negotiation strategy, law enforcement and regulatory engagement, and analysis of obligations under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, known as GDPR.

And as a relatively new partner and as a woman in the male-dominated field of cybersecurity, Glick has been “a fantastic mentor” herself to associates in the practice, De said.