Bryan Cunningham

Bryan Cunningham, practicing law at Zweiback, Fiset, & Coleman, LLP, is an international expert in privacy and data protection law, cyber security, trade secrets, employee monitoring, and government surveillance issues. Bryan developed this unique practice through extensive experience in senior U.S. Government intelligence and law enforcement positions. He served as Deputy Legal Adviser to then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. He also served six years in the Clinton Administration, as a senior CIA officer and federal prosecutor. He drafted significant portions of the Homeland Security Act and related legislation, helping to shepherd them through Congress. He was a principal contributor to the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, worked closely with the 9/11 Commission and has provided legal advice to Presidents, National Security Advisors, the National Security Council, and other senior government officials on intelligence, terrorism, cyber security and other related matters. Bryan’s practice has included assisting Fortune 500 and multinational companies to comply with complex, and often conflicting, data protection requirements under U.S. federal law, U.S. state laws, and the numerous specific requirements in the European Union and other overseas jurisdictions. He also has counseled start-ups and other companies in general matters and created and directs a privacy advisory committee for a multi-billion dollar company. As the principal author of legal and ethics chapters in authoritative cyber security textbooks, Bryan is also a frequent media commentator on privacy, cyber security, electronic surveillance, intelligence, and other national security issues. He has appeared on CNN, Bloomberg, ABC, Fox, CNBC, NPR, and PBS, and has been published in numerous national newspapers and overseas publications. Bryan is the current Executive Director of the University of California, Irvine’s Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute. He was founding vice-chair of the American Bar Association Cyber Security Privacy Task Force and was awarded the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement for his work on information issues. He has served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Biodefense Analysis, the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, and the Bipartisan Policy Center Cyber Security Task Force.