About the IAPP

Jim Dempsey is the managing director of the IAPP's Cybersecurity Law Center. In that role, he serves as a thought leader and public voice for the IAPP on cybersecurity law, providing strategic direction on and contributing to, the development of practical, relevant and timely research and other content to keep IAPP members informed of and engaged in critical cybersecurity law developments. On behalf of the IAPP, he engages with senior industry stakeholders, policymakers, academics and civil society leaders, connecting them with IAPP leadership and teams.

A leading expert on privacy and Internet policy, Dempsey also holds part-time positions as senior policy advisor at the Stanford Program on Geopolitics, Technology and Governance, judge on the Data Protection Review Court in the U.S. Department of Justice, and lecturer at the UC Berkeley School of Law. From 2012 to 2017, Dempsey served as a member of the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent federal agency charged with advising senior policymakers and overseeing the nation’s counterterrorism programs. Dempsey previously served as the executive director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, the Executive Director and head of CDT West at the Center for Democracy & Technology and assistant counsel to the House Judiciary Committee.

Dempsey is co-author, with John Carlin, of “Cybersecurity Law Fundamentals” (IAPP, 2d ed. 2024) and is a frequent contributor to Lawfare. He holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from Harvard University.