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Top Internet and Data Privacy Lawyer Tod Cohen Joins O’Melveny

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON, DC—January 5, 2021—O’Melveny announced today that one of the nation’s top data privacy and policy experts, Tod Cohen, has joined the firm as a partner.

Cohen arrives at O’Melveny after serving in senior in-house legal positions at several of the technology sector’s best-known companies, including Twitter, eBay, and StubHub. He will leverage his experience navigating some of the industry’s most controversial legal issues to help clients manage data privacy, payments, antitrust and competition law, content moderation, as well as emerging internet law and policy.

Most recently, Cohen served as Deputy General Counsel and Vice President of Twitter, with a portfolio encompassing data privacy and content moderation, as well as antitrust and competition law, global legal policy, payments, and other responsibilities. In this role, he managed Twitter’s Global Office of Data Protection and its regulatory relationships, breach notifications, and investigations with regulators.

From 2015 to 2018, Cohen served as General Counsel of eBay affiliate StubHub, where he oversaw M&A, strategic partnerships, antitrust and competition law, global payment regulation, and privacy and data protection matters. He managed StubHub’s global legal team and was a member of both the StubHub executive leadership team and eBay legal senior leadership team.

As Deputy General Counsel at eBay from 2004 to 2018, Cohen had responsibility for managing global public policy for the eBay, PayPal, Skype, eBay Classified, and StubHub businesses, overseeing e-commerce, payments, trade, taxation, data protection, and intellectual property matters, and handling eBay’s antitrust and competition law work. From 2000 to 2004, he worked as the company’s Associate General Counsel, opening eBay’s Government Relations office in Washington.

“Tod brings enormous experience guiding some of the largest technology companies on some of the most pressing issues facing the sector, and we’re delighted to welcome him aboard,” said O’Melveny chair Bradley J. Butwin. “He will give our clients a powerful advantage in building and defending innovative internet businesses during an era of unprecedented regulatory scrutiny.”

“Tod was ‘present at the creation’ of now-foundational internet law and has been a lead actor both in crafting key regulatory frameworks and helping multibillion-dollar tech giants devise global strategies for compliance, risk management, and growth,” added C. Brophy Christensen, co-chair of O’Melveny’s Corporate Department. “He brings our clients a depth of expertise that few, if any, other firms can match.”

Earlier in his career, Cohen served as Vice President and Counsel for New Media for the Motion Picture Association of America and European Vice President and Legal Counsel to the Business Software Alliance. He also worked as an associate in Covington & Burling’s offices in Washington and London.

Cohen has served as an expert, member, and participant in government and industry-wide coalitions, and testified before regulators and legislators around the world. At the start of his career, he worked in politics, including Capitol Hill. Cohen earned his J.D. from George Washington University Law School, where he served on Law Review.

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