Cecillia Xie advises clients across various sectors worldwide on strategies for managing privacy and data security risks. She has substantial experience counseling on privacy and cybersecurity issues in product development, corporate transactions including joint ventures and M&A, and data breach preparation and response.

Cecillia assists both multinational and startup clients with navigating the complex and emerging privacy regulatory regimes in the United States and internationally, including the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). She has extensive experience in legal research and drafting and negotiating privacy and data security provisions in contracts. She is also well versed with the novel privacy issues that existing and emergent legislation present for the online advertising space.

Prior to joining Morrison & Foerster, Cecillia was an associate at an Am Law 100 firm in New York City, where she advised on the intellectual property and privacy aspects of complex corporate transactions and assisted clients with internal and government investigations, as well as antitrust and securities class actions. During law school, Cecillia interned at the U.S. Department of Justice in the Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS), where she assisted with data breach investigations. With the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, she presented on privacy and related concerns with the use of telepresence robots at the annual We Robot conference and advised a large domestic nonprofit on a pilot application for children.

Cecillia is also a Lecturer in Computer Science at Yale University, where she teaches Intellectual Property in the Digital Age.

Cecillia earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she served as Speakers Editor for the Journal of Law & Technology and President of the Child & Youth Advocates. She received her B.A., cum laude, in economics from Yale University.

EDUCATION

• Yale University, B.A., 2013

• Harvard Law School, J.D., 2016

Ranking