{"id":55290,"date":"2018-12-05T16:24:56","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T21:24:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/?p=55290"},"modified":"2022-07-01T13:27:43","modified_gmt":"2022-07-01T17:27:43","slug":"a-career-that-computes","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/record\/articles\/2018\/a-career-that-computes\/","title":{"rendered":"A Career That Computes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aravind Swaminathan (\u201902) turned his interest in tech and experience as a prosecutor into a thriving cybersecurity and data privacy practice.<\/h2>\n
\"Aravind
Photo by Eric Levin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When a major public company\u00a0suffered a data breach recently, Aravind Swaminathan<\/a>\u00a0(’02)<\/span> took the unusual step of working with the relevant federal authorities to have law enforcement personnel seize a server containing his client\u2019s stolen data.<\/p>\n

As a result, the company faced no consumer or regulatory complaints.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo regulator or class action plaintiff wanted to touch this case, given the lengths to which Aravind went to protect, and indeed recover, the company and its customers\u2019 data,\u201d says Antony (Tony) Kim, who, along with Swaminathan, cochairs Orrick\u2019s Cyber, Privacy & Data Innovation practice. \u201cMost lawyers don\u2019t have the contacts, or know-how, to even think about retrieving stolen data.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swaminathan isn\u2019t most lawyers. In fact, he almost wasn\u2019t a lawyer at all. The New Jersey native studied biology as an undergraduate at Cornell University and then taught high school math, science, and computer science for a couple of years before deciding to go to law school \u201ckind of on a whim.\u201d He knew he wanted to get a graduate degree but was only sure of one thing: he didn\u2019t want to study medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad\u2019s a doctor; all my dad\u2019s friends are doctors,\u201d he explains. \u201cI went to the Boston University campus and picked up a coursebook because my girlfriend at the time was there. When I came to \u2018Law,\u2019 I read a bunch of the class descriptions and thought, \u2018Wow, that seems really great.\u2019 So, I decided to go to law school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly 20 years later, Swaminathan is a leading cybersecurity and data privacy lawyer, having first honed his skills in those areas as an Assistant US Attorney in Seattle. Although the topics weren\u2019t covered explicitly at BU Law when Swaminathan was a student (the nation\u2019s first security breach notification statute\u2014 in California\u2014didn\u2019t take effect until the year after he graduated), today the school\u00a0offers a variety of courses and experiential learning opportunities in the field.<\/p>\n

Over the past few years, BU Law has launched a Technology & Cyberlaw Clinic<\/a> in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an interdisciplinary Cyber Alliance<\/a> of computer science experts, law professors, and social scientists designed to generate learning and research opportunities. In fall 2017, the school hired Associate Professor Ahmed Ghappour<\/a>, a former computer engineer who is an expert in criminal law and computer security.<\/p>\n

Swaminathan applauds the school\u2019s cybersecurity-related expansion.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to recognize that this is an area of the law that\u2019s grown, and it\u2019s here to stay,\u201d he says. \u201cThis idea of the convergence of tech and law is going to be at the center of where the legal industry is going to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swaminathan\u2019s own entry into the field came organically. After graduating from BU Law, he worked in law firms and spent a year clerking for Judge Richard C.\u00a0Tallman of the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals. But it was Swaminathan\u2019s move to the Western District of Washington US Attorney\u2019s Office that put him on track for a career in cyberlaw.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nAfter working on a few of the office\u2019s digital crimes investigations and prosecutions, then US Attorney Jenny A. Durkan designated Swaminathan as one of the district\u2019s Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Section (CHIPS) prosecutors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of what kicked it off,\u201d says Swaminathan, although he says he\u2019s always been \u201cinto technology.\u201d As a high school student, he took computer programming and learned how to code in \u201clanguages so old, most have never heard of them\u201d\u2014Fortran, Pascal, and COBOL.<\/p>\n

Swaminathan says the forensic techniques used in cyber cases\u2014including how investigators leverage technology to \u201ccomb through computers to identify evidence\u201d\u2014appealed to him right away. Since leaving the government in 2013, he has continued in the field, first at DLA Piper and now at Orrick. Even though he\u2019s no longer a prosecutor, Swaminathan says it\u2019s overly simplistic to think of his current work as a traditional defense practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of our clients are the victims of a cybercrime,\u201d he says. \u201cAs more and more plaintiffs and regulators begin to allege that companies should be liable for being negligent data custodians, they become defendants. But at the inception, they are victims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swaminathan says the technology behind his clients\u2019 work continues to excite him.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur entire practice is based around the idea that data is the new currency,\u201d he says, adding that data is crucial not only for his traditional technology company\u00a0clients, like Microsoft, but also for entities that normally wouldn\u2019t be associated with Big Data, like the city of Seattle.<\/p>\n

Orrick and Swaminathan represent the city in its Open Data Program<\/a>, which makes municipal data available to the public for a variety of reasons, including improving transparency, encouraging initiatives that might improve quality of life, and creating economic opportunities.<\/p>\n

In every matter, Swaminathan says, \u201cWe\u2019re trying to help our clients\u2014how do you collect data, store it, and protect it from bad guys? As clients increasingly depend on data to drive innovation, we\u2019re really at the center of their needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of his diverse career background, Swaminathan recommends students take a \u201cbroad variety\u201d of classes\u00a0that interest them before zeroing in on the thing they love best.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more you expose yourself to, the better off you\u2019ll be,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Swaminathan\u2019s own time at BU Law was influential in a variety of ways. A criminal law and procedure course with Professor Tracey Maclin was especially \u201cformative in thinking about what I wanted to do,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still a bit of a Fourth and Fifth Amendment junkie, so Tracey has rubbed off on me permanently,\u201d he jokes.<\/p>\n

And BU Law was important personally, too\u2014a classmate and fellow moot court competitor introduced Swaminathan to her roommate (a Harvard Law student), who eventually became Swaminathan\u2019s wife: Sarah C. Johnson, a partner at the Pacifica Law Group.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take full credit for their happy family,\u201d jokes the classmate, Joanne M. Hepburn (\u201902), of counsel at K&L Gates.<\/p>\n

Hepburn says that, even as a student, Swaminathan demonstrated some of the talents that would later serve him well as a trial attorney. \u201cHe\u2019s always been a very polished speaker,\u201d she says. \u201cHe has that dynamic personality where he can really convey the information that he knows like the back of his hand to people who might not know it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Orrick, Swaminathan has been a \u201cgame changer,\u201d says Kim. In addition to growing the practice internally\u2014with a focus on women and minority attorneys (Swaminathan was named a 2018 Rainmaker by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association<\/a>)\u2014Kim says Swaminathan has \u201ctripled\u201d the firm\u2019s roster of public company cyber and privacy clients.<\/p>\n

\u201cAravind\u2019s greatest value to clients is his ability to \u2018see around corners,\u2019\u201d says Kim. \u201cAs a former prosecutor, trial lawyer, and tech-enthusiast, he has a special ability to anticipate how his clients\u2019 defense narrative (both legal and technical) will play out before a regulator, a court, and\/or in the press.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howard S. Altarescu (Questrom\u201970, LAW\u201974), one of Swaminathan\u2019s colleagues at Orrick and a fellow BU alum, agrees: \u201cAravind comes in with not only that litigator\u2019s advocacy but, more importantly\u201d\u2014and somewhat ironically, given Swaminathan\u2019s decision to skip medical school\u2014\u201can analytical approach like a surgeon.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Rebecca Beyer<\/h6>\n
This feature originally appeared in The Record<\/em>, BU Law\u2019s alumni magazine. Read the full issue here.<\/a><\/h5>\n

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