Claudia Rast, an attorney and shareholder at the Detroit-based law firm Butzel Long, has been appointed co-chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) Cybersecurity Legal Task Force. Rast has served six one-year terms since the task force was created in 2012.
Rast is chair of Butzel Long’s intellectual property, cybersecurity, and emerging technology practice department. She assists companies in their strategic use of technology, counseling clients in the areas of privacy, cybersecurity, data security and governance, intellectual property licensing and registration, and the forensic preservation and analysis of electronically stored information.
Rast has a background in forensics, information technology environments, and security. Over the past several years, she has worked within both the IT entrepreneur community and the automotive supplier network to negotiate contracts involving autonomous and connected vehicles and the impacts of new laws and regulations. Rast is also an experienced environmental lawyer, focusing on alternative energy and sustainability.
A frequent speaker on cybersecurity, privacy, and data governance, Rast moderated an environmental rule of law panel at The Hague sponsored by the World Justice Forum in 2019.
She is co-author of the ABA Cybersecurity Handbook, Second Edition, and the forthcoming Cyber Incident Response Handbook: A Resource for Attorneys, Law Firms, and Business Professionals. She has published numerous articles, including an online privacy course for CPAs to receive CPE credit.
Rast earned her bachelor’s degree in natural resources at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and graduated from the University of Detroit School of Law. She completed MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory’s “Tackling the Challenges of Big Data” program in 2014.
The Cybersecurity Legal Task Force unites representatives from 25 ABA entities with cybersecurity expertise and leaders from the public, private, and technical sectors. The task force identifies cybersecurity resources, coordinates the analyses and assessments of ABA’s cybersecurity protocols, leads projects and spotlights ABA cybersecurity initiatives, and undertakes a range of publishing, programming, and outreach.
Butzel Long was founded in 1854 and has full-service law offices in Michigan, New York, and Washington D.C., as well as an alliance office in Beijing, China.
