Distinguished Practitioner in Residence Mary Hildebrand to Teach Data Security and Privacy Lab This Fall

This fall, Seton Hall Law School will offer a Data Security and Privacy Lab taught by Mary Hildebrand CIPP/US/E, the 2024-2025 Intellectual Property Distinguished Practitioner in Residence. Hildebrand is a Partner at Lowenstein & Sandler LLP and founded, led, and now serves as Chair Emeritus of the firm's Data, Privacy, and Cybersecurity Practice. The practice's primary goal is to enable companies to launch and grow their business while staying compliant with complex global regulations governing the collection and commercial use of personal information. Hildebrand is a recognized authority on EU and U.S. data privacy and information security laws. She has over 30 years of experience working in data privacy and security, serving as lead counsel for both public and private companies, counseling clients on data privacy and security laws including new legislation, serving on a crisis response team after a breach, implementing breach response plans and counseling startups on the transactions and legal structures needed to launch their business.

The Distinguished Practitioner in Residence program is one of the many ways Seton Hall Law connects students to top practitioners. Associate Dean Margaret Lewis provides, "having a leading lawyer spend significant time at the law school as a Distinguished Practitioner in Residence helps create a bridge between law school and practice." Courses taught by the Distinguished Practitioner in Residence allow students to learn from a lawyer who understands the issues that are a priority for clients today.

The Data Security and Privacy Lab is a skills-based course that exposes students to the basics of data security and privacy practice, exploring topics such as risk assessment, drafting privacy policies, and data breach response plans. During hands-on exercises students will be able to test open-source versions of cyber forensics tools used by data security experts, such as packet sniffers and disk extraction tools. Multiple teaching modalities will be used and include interactive video lectures and online content, small group meetings with the Distinguished Practitioner to review drafting exercises, and a group tabletop exercise. Professor David Opderbeck expressed excitement about the offering and said, "this unique lab environment gives students taking our various doctrinal courses in privacy and data security law a unique opportunity to experience what this dynamic and growing area of legal practice is like in the real world."

The class is a two-credit, pass/fail lab designed to complement Seton Hall Law's other data privacy and security offerings and contribute to a student’s qualification for the Law and Technology concentration. To enroll in the class, students must have taken or registered for any of the following courses: Cybersecurity Law and Policy I or II, Information Privacy, any listed online privacy course, or the Data Privacy and Security Bootcamp. This is the first time a Distinguished Practitioner in Residence has taught a lab in the fall semester in many years, so students should take advantage of this opportunity while they can, as seats are still available.

Interested students should reach out to the Registrar.