Jacqueline F. Brown

Lyn advises clients on a wide range of cybersecurity, national security, economic espionage, insider threat, ransomware, election security, and privacy issues.  She specializes in helping clients prepare for and respond to cyber-attacks, including multi-million dollar ransomware attacks, business email compromises, and other forms of information security incidents or data breaches.  She frequently directs privileged internal investigations, works with forensic consultants, interacts with federal law enforcement or homeland security agencies, and prepares after-action guidance.  Lyn advises clients in all phases of federal rulemaking, cyber policy making, or security directive compliance.  She also advises clients on compliance with compulsory legal process in criminal investigations or national security matters.

She has over 30 years of experience in federal law enforcement, the intelligence and homeland security communities, and the private sector. She has senior executive level federal government experience in cybersecurity, privacy, government surveillance, information security, risk management, compliance, and litigation. Lyn is also an annual contributor to the Yale Cyber Leadership Forum which seeks to bridge the divide between law, technology, government, and business in cybersecurity.

As a former senior national security and cyber attorney at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Lyn served as Chief of the Cyber Law Unit (Acting) supervising the provision of legal advice in FBI cyber intrusion investigations involving ransomware attacks, incident response, and cybersecurity information sharing. She also served as counsel to the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force (NCIJTF) which coordinates whole-of-government campaigns to protect the U.S. and its allies from malicious cyber intrusions. She provided comprehensive legal, policy, investigative, and operational advice to the FBI’s Cyber Division.

Previously, Lyn was the General Counsel to the President's Intelligence Advisory Board in the Executive Office of the President at The White House where she focused on cybersecurity, government surveillance, ethics, and insider threat issues. She was the FBI’s Privacy Officer (Acting) and was responsible ensuring compliance with information privacy and security laws and regulations in all FBI systems. As the Deputy General Counsel for the FBI’s General Law Branch (Acting), she supervised provision of advice on privacy, cyber security, data protection, fiscal law, and government contracts. As Section Chief for Counterterrorism Law (Acting), she supervised the provision of legal advice in FBI counterterrorism investigations ensuring compliance with statutory standards while protecting privacy and civil liberties. As Chief Counsel to the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center, she is widely credited with creating the U.S. Government’s watchlisting and national security screening guidance and she negotiated international biometrics and identity management information sharing agreements.

Earlier in her career, she served as senior counsel to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and helped draft the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act. She subsequently became the first FBI attorney detailed to help stand up the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). She also served as the Senior Counterterrorism Legal Advisor at the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) focusing on cyber, data management, information security, risk management, and information sharing. Before entering public service, Lyn was in private practice specializing in international law and aviation mass disaster litigation.