ZwillGen PLLC

Founder, Washington, D.C.
202.706-5202
marc@zwillgen.com

Marc Zwillinger is a founding partner of ZwillGen PLLC and has been helping clients navigate through the maze of legal issues that result from doing business online since the year 2000.

His practice focuses on six main areas:

·        Providing advice and counsel to ISPs, Internet sites, wireless providers, application developers, and online gaming companies regarding the data they maintain about users.  This work typically involves counseling on the collection, use and disclosure of data with regard to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“ECPA”), the Wiretap Act, FISA, COPPA, the Video Privacy Protection Act, California’s Shine the Light law, the EU Data Protection Directive, and other privacy laws.  It also involves helping clients respond to U.S. and foreign governmental surveillance orders and subpoenas for consumer data while protecting the companies and its users from impermissible, overbroad and burdensome process.  In addition, Mr. Zwillinger helps established and emerging companies with implementing and revising Terms of Service, Privacy Policies and EULAs for online products and services.

·        Litigating cases, especially class-actions, involving data handling and disclosure practices.  In this area, Mr. Zwillinger has litigated numerous cases at the district and appellate court level involving claims under ECPA, the Wiretap Act, the Communications Act, as well as ancillary claims under consumer protection and unfair competition statutes.  Litigation clients for whom he has obtained successful results include Yahoo!, Cablevision, MySpace, Blizzard, DIRECTV, and Pandora.    

·        Handling inquires and investigations by the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communication Commission, state Attorney General offices and other regulatory entities.  In this regard Mr. Zwillinger has helped large and small clients obtain favorable results, including closures of confidential investigations and favorable consent decrees or other negotiated resolutions.

·        Responding to data breaches and hacker attacks.  Mr. Zwillinger has handled every type of data breach ranging from simple laptop loss to complicated hacker attacks from Anonymous/LulzSec/AntiSec and the APT (Advanced Persistent Threat).  On these matters, he has helped guide the incident response process, led internal and external investigations, coordinated with law enforcement, and responded to government inquiries, including state Attorney General inquiries.

·        Representing media entities.  Mr. Zwillinger represents both traditional and online media entities in providing advice on use and publication of information that has been provided to them by sources, collected online or obtained through other means.  He has counseled clients on issues related to obscenity, child pornography, defamation, intellectual property, and Section 230 immunity, as well as unique issues involving retaining and using data subject to claims of ownership by third parties.

·        Advising social gaming, skill gaming, fantasy sports, and online poker entities.  Having practiced in the gaming and gambling space since working at DOJ, Mr. Zwillinger regularly advises companies that offer gaming or gaming activities online to ensure that their skill games conform with state and federal law, and helps overseas gambling providers develop compliance programs to screen out participants from jurisdictions where such betting is not legal. 

Marc has been listed as one of the nation’s top data security and privacy lawyers by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business for 4 straight years (2007-20011).  http://www.chambersandpartners.com/uk/Firms/237870-42694/336122

Prior to starting ZwillGen PLLC, Marc ran the Privacy and Security groups at two major national firms: Sonnenschein Nath and Rosenthal LLP and Kirkland & Ellis LLP.  Before that, he spent three years prosecuting cybercrime from the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice. At the Department of Justice, he coordinated the investigations of several high-profile computer crime cases including the 1997 penetration of U.S. military computer systems by an Israeli hacker ("Solar Sunrise") and the February 2000 Denial of Service Attacks on prominent e-commerce sites.  He also investigated and prosecuted violations of the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (the "EEA") and represented the government at trial and in sentencing proceedings in United States v. P.Y. Yang, et al., the first EEA case successfully tried in the United States.  

After receiving his J.D. from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude in 1994, Marc clerked for Judge Mark L. Wolf of the United States District Court, District of Massachusetts.  

Marc frequently is invited to speak to various professional audiences and to conduct in-house training courses.  He has appeared on national news programs and has been a quoted source for a number of national media outlets.  He is also an adjunct professor of Cybercrime at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.  Marc holds an active security clearance for classified matters.

Education

Harvard Law, J.D., Magna Cum Laude, 1994

Tufts University, B.A., 1991

Prior Experience

Sonnenschein Nath and Rosenthal - Chair of Privacy and Security Group

Kirkland & Ellis

Department of Justice - Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the Criminal Division

United States Supreme Court

United States Court of Appeals  for the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th Circuits 

United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

D.C. Court of Appeals

Illinois Supreme Court

Admitted to Bar

Illinois, 1994

District of Columbia, 1995