Phyllis Sumner

Phyllis B. Sumner is a Partner and the firm’s Chief Privacy Officer. She leads our Data, Privacy and Security practice. Phyllis regularly counsels corporate boards, senior executives and other clients regarding data breach prevention, emergency response, remediation, compliance, regulatory enforcement, internal corporate investigations and other critical privacy and data security concerns.

As a crisis manager, Phyllis works closely with clients’ legal, compliance and business teams to strategize, manage and defend when significant privacy and data security issues arise. She assists her clients with developing mature incident response plans and leads them through security incidents, including investigations, containment, remediation, communications, and contractual and legal obligations.

She represents clients defending against class actions resulting from alleged consumer protection and privacy violations, and data security incidents. In 2018 and 2016, Cybersecurity Docket named Phyllis to its Incident Response 30, which lists “the 30 best and brightest Incident Response attorneys” in the U.S. and Law360 named her Cybersecurity MVP in 2017 and Privacy MVP in 2016.

Previously, Phyllis served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois and the Northern District of Georgia. She successfully prosecuted high profile cases such as Eric Rudolph, the Centennial Olympic Park bomber, as well as cases involving public corruption, domestic terrorism, credit card fraud, money laundering, healthcare fraud and other complex criminal matters.

EDUCATION:

• J.D., Vanderbilt University
• B.B.A., University of Georgia

ADMISSIONS:

• Georgia
• Illinois
• Supreme Court of Georgia
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois