Cynthia Cole

Cynthia J. Cole is currently Special Counsel at Baker Botts in Palo Alto, California. She has 19 years of experience as CEO and General Counsel in public and private companies, particularly related to technology, corporate transactional and data privacy issues such as the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) and the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). She counsels clients on technology transactions and deals, big data, data privacy, data sharing and IP licensing, often creating bespoke agreements in novel technology fields. She has led the firm’s initiative in GDPR, CCPA and data protection counseling for US Companies. Cynthia is certified as an Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/E) by the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

Cynthia is a recognized thought leader in data privacy, named a “California Trailblazer 2019” for her work building a transactional data privacy practice at Baker Botts and a “National Women in Law Honoree for Thought Leadership” by Corporate Counsel in 2018, and has taught and written on a range of data privacy and policy trends and innovative issues. Cynthia was recognized as one of the Women Leaders in Tech Law by The Recorder, 2017. She is an adjunct professor of law at Northwestern Pritzker school of law and currently serves as chair of the governance committee of the board of directors of the Palo Alto Art Center Foundation.