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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 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.
A nationwide top ranked Privacy & Data Security lawyer by Chambers USA, Phyllis’ clients note “Her knowledge and expertise when it comes to ransomware incident response is second to none.” Phyllis is a recognized leader in the industry and consistently named to Cybersecurity Docket’s annual list of “best and brightest Incident Response attorneys,” including the 2023 and 2024 Global Incident Response Top 50. Three-time Law360 MVP, she also has earned recognition as a Daily Report’s “Distinguished Leader,” Atlanta Magazine’s "Women Making a Mark," and as one of Global Data Review’s “Women in Data,” and she is listed in the Best Lawyers of America for her high caliber work in privacy and data security law.
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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