Adrienne E. Fowler

Adrienne Fowler is a partner with the law firm of Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP who helps communications and tech companies navigate the maze of federal, state, and international regulations related to consumer protection, privacy, and data security, in order to develop comprehensive regulatory strategies. She also counsels other law firms on preventing, planning for, and responding to data security incidents affecting confidential client data.

She regularly:

• Counsels clients on how to integrate regulatory compliance into their business models
• Helps to set up comprehensive corporate regulatory compliance programs
• Helps to shape the regulatory landscape through advocacy
• Assesses regulatory risks during mergers and acquisitions and in contract negotiations
• Responds to government demands for personally identifiable information about a client’s customers or employees
• Advises clients regarding the protection of confidential client, commercial, and trade secret information
• Responds to government investigations and litigation involving alleged regulatory compliance failures

As a few examples, she engages with regulators on the development of broadband and telecommunications privacy regulations, advises clients on Privacy Shield self-certification and looming obligations to comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and helps clients as they implement website accessibility solutions and grapple with Section 508 compliance and WCAG 2.0 standards.

Adrienne’s expansive perspective on clients’ consumer protection, privacy, and data security regulatory strategies comes from her experience with the consumer protection arms of a wide variety of regulators and enforcement agencies, including:

• The Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
• The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
• The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC)
• The Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (OCR)
• The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC)
• The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)
• Various state attorneys general

Before entering private practice, Adrienne was a trial attorney in DOJ’s Consumer Protection Branch, where she received a special commendation for outstanding service. She handled high-profile regulatory enforcement cases, including securing the entry of the then-largest civil penalty in a privacy-related FTC enforcement action; defending the FDA after the agency removed a controversial medical device from the market; negotiating a consent decree that reshaped how one of the nation’s largest debt buyers collects old debts; negotiating the first governmental consent decree that included wide-ranging injunctive relief for alleged reporting violations under the Consumer Product Safety Act; and criminally prosecuting individuals and corporations who committed large-scale telemarketing and Internet-based consumer fraud.

Adrienne currently serves as co-chair of the Federal Communications Bar Association’s Privacy and Data Security Committee, and is a certified privacy professional (CIPP/US). She received her J.D. from the University of Michigan, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Michigan Law Review.