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Phyllis B. Sumner is a Partner in King & Spalding'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.
She 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 responding to and managing hundreds of data security incidents including representing clients defending against class actions and regulator investigations in some of the largest and most high-profile data security incidents.
Phyllis is ranked as a leading lawyer by Chambers USA 2022 where her clients note “Her knowledge and expertise when it comes to ransomware incident response is second to none.” In 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2016 Cybersecurity Docket named her to its list of the “best and brightest Incident Response attorneys." In 2019, Global Data Review named her to its Women in Data list. She is a 2017 and 2016 Law360 MVP in Privacy and Cybersecurity. The Daily Report named her a “Distinguished Leader” in 2017 and in 2016 Atlanta Magazine recognized her as a "Woman Making a Mark."
She 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.
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