Data breaches, encryption are among topics at ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago March 16-19

Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, will be keynote speaker at the American Bar Association ABA TECHSHOW 2016, March 16-19 at the Hilton Chicago Hotel.

Cohn will focus her presentation on data privacy. She has held several positions with the Electronic Frontier Foundation since joining the organization in 1993 when she served as its outside lead attorney in Bernstein v. Dept. of Justice, the successful First Amendment challenge to the U.S. export restrictions on cryptography.

From 2000-15, she served as EFF’s legal director as well as its general counsel.

The National Law Journal twice named Cohn one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America in 2013 and 2006, and in 2007, the National Law Journal named her one of the 50 most influential women lawyers in America.

• Plenary Session I, Friday, 5-6 p.m.: “Can They Hear Me Now? Practicing Law in an Age of Mass Surveillance.” Ben Wizner will be among the speakers who will address what the profession has learned from the Snowden disclosures about the reach of state surveillance into attorney-client conversations, and what lawyers need to learn about cybersecurity.

Wizner, who is director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, has been the principal legal advisor to Snowden since July 2013.

He will be joined by author and moderator David Lat; Marcia Hoffman, law and technology attorney; and Chris Soghoian, principal technologist and a senior policy analyst with the ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project.

• Plenary Session II, Saturday, 9-10 a.m.: “Technology: Fight, Flight, Friend or Follow?” Panelists will look at how technology is changing the delivery of legal services and how those changes are requiring lawyers to rethink their role in today’s marketplace and to reconsider their relationship with technology.

Adriana Linares, from the Florida Bar, will serve as moderator and be joined by speakers Ramon Abadin, Sedgwick LLP; Gregory Coleman, Critton, Luttier & Coleman LLP; Michele DeStefano, LawWithoutWalls; and John Stewart, RosswaySwan.