RCLS Announces Expanded Focus on Cyber Governance as Former General Counsels of NSA and Verizon join as distinguished fellows

 

The Reiss Center on Law and Security is expanding its cybersecurity program to focus on the emerging field of cyber governance, and will welcome Rajesh De, former general counsel of the National Security Agency, and Randal Milch ’85, former general counsel of Verizon Communications as distinguished fellows.

De and Milch will join senior fellow Judi Germano, who left the Department of Justice in 2013 and joined CLS to focus on cybersecurity threats facing the private sector.  Together, they will work on emerging questions about cyber governance:  duties and best practices for corporations subject to cyber threats, and ways in which government agencies charged with cybersecurity responsibility can protect U.S. networks. De and Milch also have joined the CLS board of advisers.

“Over the last several years, the Reiss Center on Law and Security has distinguished itself through its focus on the evolving relationship between government and the private sector regarding cybersecurity,” said NYU Law Dean Trevor Morrison.  “Raj and Randy both have deep expertise on these matters. They will contribute greatly to the center’s continuing work, and to many other aspects of the life of the law school.”

“Raj and Randy have unparalleled experience facing the most novel and consequential cybersecurity challenges of our time,” noted Professor of Law and CLS Faculty Director Samuel Rascoff. “They are exceedingly well-positioned to help the center continue to drive the scholarly and public discussion of these issues, as it becomes ever more challenging to manage the diverse threats to which the United States and its allies are subject.”

Rajesh De served most recently as general counsel of the National Security Agency, where he was the agency’s chief legal officer and a senior advisor to the director.  Prior to his service at NSA, Raj worked at the White House as staff secretary and deputy assistant to the president.  He has worked in several roles at the U.S. Department of Justice, and clerked for Judge A. Wallace Tashima of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  De is also currently a partner in the Washington D.C. office of Mayer Brown, where he leads the firm’s global Privacy & Security practice.

Randal Milch ’85 was most recently executive vice president and strategic policy adviser to Verizon’s chairman and CEO.  He served as the company’s general counsel from 2008 to 2014, and before that was general counsel of several business divisions within Verizon.  Earlier in his career, Milch was a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine.  He clerked for Clement F. Haynsworth Jr., chief judge emeritus of the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.