Lane Baghdadi

What is your specialty?

Data privacy, national security, and AI governance, with a broader corporate governance and technology contracting practice. I help companies and their counsel navigate GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, and the growing patchwork of state privacy laws, building privacy programs from the ground up, negotiating data processing agreements, drafting terms of service, and preparing privacy policies, and working through the harder questions AI features and other emergent technologies raise. I also advise on HIPAA and PHI handling, cross-border transfers, and assist with national security reviews, including CFIUS and Team Telecom, which I handled for the government before moving into private practice. I am CIPP/US certified and spent a decade in senior federal counsel roles, most recently as senior counsel at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Why do you love what you do?

Privacy, Cyber, and AI law is being written in real time, and the companies building innovative technology in this space often have a move-fast-comply-later approach. I like being the person who helps cool new companies move to market safely, translating an unsettled legal landscape into decisions a solo entrepreneur, product or security team, or a board can actually act on. The work is cross-functional; some of my best days are spent sitting with entrepreneurs, engineers, and salespeople rather than other lawyers. And having spent years on the government side of these questions, I find a lot of satisfaction in helping the private sector get ahead of them, rather than reacting after something goes wrong. I think overall my favorite part of my practice is problem-solving. I love finding a solution for a challenging regulatory or statutory problem that complies with the legal landscape while still meeting company needs.

Where did you go to school?

I earned my J.D. summa cum laude from Stetson University College of Law, where I graduated first in my class as valedictorian, booked twelve classes, and served as Executive Editor of the Stetson Law Review (all from work ethic, not intelligence). Before that, I completed a B.S. in Psychology and a B.A. in Criminal Justice, both summa cum laude, at Cumberland University. I like to joke that the psychology degree gets more use than the law degree—much of my work is helping people make a decision under uncertainty, and only some of that is legal analysis (and also, this is an AI-proof aspect of my job).