David C. Lashway

DAVID LASHWAY is co-chair of Sidley’s highly ranked global Privacy and Cybersecurity practice and a member of the firm’s top ranked Crisis Management and Strategic Response team. He is acknowledged as one of the leading lawyers for crisis management, cybersecurity, data security incidents, misinformation, trade secret theft, and related investigation matters. He has advised private and public organizations on significant and material cybersecurity incidents across almost every critical infrastructure sector, including financial services, energy, manufacturing, technology, water, defense, municipal government, retail, transportation, and hospitality industries. He has significant experience in addressing election security and misinformation-related issues, and was deeply involved in the investigations into the 2016 and 2020 actions targeting various U.S. political parties. He has served as the lead lawyer advising on the legal response to operationally impactful malware for a number of Fortune 500 entities, and led the incident response, associated investigations and litigations for several companies impacted by the NotPetya malware incident. He routinely leads responses to ransomware-related matters.

David has been regularly named as one of leading lawyers in surveys of the best lawyers for cybersecurity globally. In a recent ranking, The Legal 500 noted that clients describe him as “a brilliant lawyer and strategist. He is very intelligent and his performance in front of boards and management teams have been some of the best I have ever seen.”  Another client noted that “David Lashway is exceptionally knowledgeable and conversant in cyber incident response, cyber threat intelligence, legislation and authorities’ issues, and national security matters.” Chambers Global has ranked David for Privacy & Data Security and Privacy & Data Security: Incident Response (USA) (2019–2023) and he is recognized as a leading lawyer in incident response in Chambers USA (2022–2023), receiving a Band 1 ranking in Cyber Incident Response. He has been included on the list of leading Incident Response Lawyers since its inception, and is a sought-after speaker related to cybersecurity and national security matters.

David has led due diligence on some of the largest recent corporate transactions, and regularly advises companies through complex CFIUS issues. He has also served as lead counsel on matters for organizations facing difficult regulatory, congressional, and public policy issues across a range of industry sectors and subjects. David is fluent in multiple languages and regularly handles matters involving the global intelligence community and law enforcement.